[swift-evolution] [Pitch] Rename Mirror

[Austin Zheng]

I agree with Dmitri. I would rather see a proper design for reflection
(similar to Completing Generics) before we start making any changes to the
existing machinery.

Best,
Austin

On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 4:39 PM, Dmitri Gribenko via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 21, 2016 at 4:06 PM, Anton Zhilin <antonyzhilin at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > 2016-07-22 1:34 GMT+03:00 Dmitri Gribenko <gribozavr at gmail.com>:
> >>
> >> > Mirror.DisplayStyle contains optional and set as special cases, but
> does
> >> > not
> >> > contain function
> >> > Mirror collects all information possible at initialization, while for
> >> > true
> >> > reflection we want laziness
> >> > Mirror allows customization. For example, Array<T> is represented
> with a
> >> > field for each of its elements. Do we want this for “true” reflection
> we
> >> > want to add in the future?
> >>
> >> Why can't we add these features to Mirror in future?
> >
> >
> > Reflection in some other languages works as follows: we have a type
> (let's
> > name it 'Reflection'). Each instance of it contains ID of one type and
> can,
> > for example, retrieve an array of its static or normal methods.
>
> I understand.  But we don't know how reflection will work in Swift, we
> haven't designed it yet.  You are assuming it will work like it does
> in other languages, which will not necessarily be the case.
>
> > Moreover, types can completely customize contents of their
> > 'Mirror's. This is incompatible with laziness and with how reflection
> should
> > work, based on experience from other languages.
>
> That is actually viewed as a weakness of reflection in other
> languages.  Allowing reflection to access other types' internal data
> and APIs creates barriers for optimization, and facilitates creating
> binary compatibility problems when apps include code that uses
> reflection to poke at internal data of library types.
>
> Dmitri
>
> --
> main(i,j){for(i=2;;i++){for(j=2;j<i;j++){if(!(i%j)){j=0;break;}}if
> (j){printf("%d\n",i);}}} /*Dmitri Gribenko <gribozavr at gmail.com>*/
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