[swift-evolution] InternalString class for easy String manipulation

[Xiaodi Wu]

Nice, thanks :)
FWIW, there are at least some ASCII-specific optimizations internally in
String (this was a question asked and not answered in the prior thread).

On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 11:21 PM, Jacob Bandes-Storch via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Here's a little prior discussion about ASCIIString: https://lists.
> swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/Week-of-Mon-20151207/002138.html
>
> Jacob
>
> On Sun, Aug 14, 2016 at 3:41 PM, Michael Savich via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
>> Back in Swift 1.0, subscripting a String was easy, you could just use
>> subscripting in a very Python like way. But now, things are a bit more
>> complicated. I recognize why we need syntax like
>> str.startIndex.advancedBy(x) but it has its downsides. Namely, it makes
>> things hard on beginners. If one of Swift's goals is to make it a great
>> first language, this syntax fights that. Imagine having to explain Unicode
>> and character size to an 8 year old. This is doubly problematic because
>> String manipulation is one of the first things new coders might want to do.
>>
>> What about having an InternalString subclass that only supports one
>> encoding, allowing it to be subscripted with Ints? The idea is that an
>> InternalString is for Strings that are more or less hard coded into the
>> app. Dictionary keys, enum raw values, that kind of stuff. This also has
>> the added benefit of forcing the programmer to think about what the String
>> is being used for. Is it user facing? Or is it just for internal use? And
>> of course, it makes code dealing with String manipulation much more concise
>> and readable.
>>
>> It follows that something like this would need to be entered as a literal
>> to make it as easy as using String. One way would be to make all String
>> literals InternalStrings, but that sounds far too drastic. Maybe appending
>> an exclamation point like "this"! Or even just wrapping the whole thing in
>> exclamation marks like !"this"! Of course, we could go old school and write
>> it like @"this" …That last one is a joke.
>>
>> I'll be the first to admit I'm way in over my head here, so I'm very open
>> to suggestions and criticism. Thanks!
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
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>
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