[swift-evolution] Move placement of 'throws' statement

[Dave Abrahams]

on Wed Dec 28 2016, Chris Lattner <clattner-AT-apple.com> wrote:

>> On Dec 28, 2016, at 9:52 AM, Dave Abrahams <dabrahams at apple.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> it would be ambiguous to move the ‘throws’ keyword to the end of the
>>> function type, because you'd get:
>>> 
>
>>> 	let x : (_ a : Int) -> (_ b: Float) -> Double throws throws
>> 
>> I see.  
>> 
>> We *could* say that the "throws" keyword comes after the return type
>> unless it's a function type, in which case it comes after the return
>> type's parameter list
>> 
>>       let x : (_ a : Int) -> (_ b: Float) throws -> Double throws
>> 
>> I admit this is a horrible rule from a language designer's point of view
>> but there's a chance it could end up being better for users.
>
> Indeed this is horrid for an ivory tower language designer, but the
> pragmatic among them often have to make concessions to the real world.
> That said, I think this would be worse for typical swift programmers
> as well: it introduces multiple ways to do things, 

Do you mean it introduces multiple ways to do the *same* thing?  I
didn't think I was introducing any of those.  If you think I was, you
probably misunderstood my suggestion (or I did!), FWIW.

> which work inconsistently and surprisingly in some cases.
>
> Here is a different way of looking at this: The predictable case is
> the one we already have now (and we wouldn’t take it away).  Is your
> beef with the current syntax so great that you think it is worth
> adding complexity to the language to privilege some special cases?

Not really, no.

-- 
-Dave