[swift-evolution] [Meta] Let's talk TouchBar + Unicode

[Jonathan Hull]

> On Oct 28, 2016, at 7:22 PM, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> A person should not need to buy a special keyboard or device, or know how to work the option/alt key, in order to write the less-than-or-equal-to operator.

But my main point is that the symbols painted on the physical keyboard are no longer our only (or even best) method of discovery.  If ≤ comes up in the auto-complete when you write < or <=, then it solves the discovery issue. We can even use this to teach the option/alt key method (this is the what the Mac does to teach command keys associated with menu items).

Your point about the search-ability of symbols is an important one, but that can also be solved with appropriate UI for discovery of the associated (searchable) keywords.

Swift is a language being designed for the next 20-30 years, we shouldn’t be limiting ourselves based on technology that is already being replaced (as you mentioned many of the devices people use everyday already have a soft keyboard… and Ive said the TouchBar was just the beginning of a new direction).  We need to aim for where the puck is going to be…

Thanks,
Jon
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