[swift-evolution] Passing an optional first argument to sequence(first:next:)

[Tim Vermeulen]

I doubt that’s it, in no way is an an empty sequence inherently unsafe. The entire standard library is built with empty sequences in mind. I’m more inclined to think it’s an oversight.

> On 15 Aug 2016, at 23:15, Maximilian Hünenberger <m.huenenberger at me.com> wrote:
> 
> Ok, I see. However this could be a potential source of bugs/performance issues where you don't consider the nil case and you do some unnecessary work. By prohibiting to pass nil you have to manually unwrap and you immediately see the "optionality".
> 
> Am 15.08.2016 um 22:36 schrieb Tim Vermeulen <tvermeulen at me.com <mailto:tvermeulen at me.com>>:
> 
>> Oh, that’s true, I misunderstood your previous message. It’s not about passing nil, but it’s about passing optionals. The point is to be able to do something like this:
>> 
>> let number = functionThatReturnsAnOptional()
>> sequence(first: number, next: { $0 % 2 == 0 ? $0 / 2 : nil })
>> 
>>> On 15 Aug 2016, at 22:26, Maximilian Hünenberger <m.huenenberger at me.com <mailto:m.huenenberger at me.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Probably I didn't understand your proposal. What do you want to change exactly?
>>> 
>>> I thought:
>>> public func sequence<T>(first: T, next: @escaping (T) -> T?) -> UnfoldFirstSequence<T> { ... }
>>> 
>>> To:
>>> public func sequence<T>(first: T?, next: @escaping (T) -> T?) -> UnfoldFirstSequence<T> { ... }
>>> 
>>>> Am 15.08.2016 um 22:17 schrieb Tim Vermeulen <tvermeulen at me.com <mailto:tvermeulen at me.com>>:
>>>> 
>>>> You can’t; the `first` parameter has type `T`, not `T?`.
>>>> 
>>>>> On 15 Aug 2016, at 22:10, Maximilian Hünenberger <m.huenenberger at me.com <mailto:m.huenenberger at me.com>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Tim,
>>>>> 
>>>>> If you pass "nil" to "first" isn't this an empty sequence? So it would be redundant.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Best regards
>>>>> Maximilian
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Am 15.08.2016 um 01:27 schrieb Tim Vermeulen via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>>:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> sequence(first:next:) takes a non-optional first argument. Is there a reason for that? sequence(state:next:) allows empty sequences, and I don’t see why sequence(first:next:) shouldn’t. The fix would be to simply add the `?` in the function signature; no other changes are required to make it work.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I considered just filing a bug report, but since this is a change of the public API...
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>>>> 
>> 

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