[swift-evolution] Strings in Swift 4

[Xiaodi Wu]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 3:36 PM, David Sweeris via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

>
> On Jan 31, 2017, at 11:32, Jaden Geller via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
> I think that is perfectly reasonable, but then it seems weird to be able
> to iterate over it (with no upper bound) independently of a collection). It
> would surprise me if
> ```
> for x in arr[arr.startIndex…] { print(x) }
> ```
> yielded different results than
> ```
> for i in arr.startIndex… { print(arr[i]) } // CRASH
> ```
> which it does under this model.
>
>
> (I *think* this how it works... semantically, anyway) Since the upper
> bound isn't specified, it's inferred from the context.
>
> In the first case, the context is as an index into an array, so the upper
> bound is inferred to be the last valid index.
>
> In the second case, there is no context, so it goes to Int.max. Then,
> *after* the "wrong" context has been established, you try to index an
> array with numbers from the too-large range.
>
> Semantically speaking, they're pretty different operations. Why is it
> surprising that they have different results?
>

I must say, I was originally rather fond of `0...` as a spelling, but IMO,
Jaden and others have pointed out a real semantic issue.

A range is, to put it simply, the "stuff" between two end points. A "range
with no upper bound" _has to be_ one that continues forever. The upper
bound _must_ be infinity. What Dave Abrahams has described does not have
the semantics of a range with no upper bound. He's describing a standalone
lower bound with no "stuff." It stands to reason that such a type should
not be a sequence at all. But we already use particular types for upper and
lower bounds that aren't sequences, and they're plain numeric types.
Therefore I'd conclude that `arr[upTo: i]` is the most consistent spelling.
It also yields the sensible result that `arr[from: i][upTo: j] == arr[upTo:
j][from: i] == arr[i..<j]`.

If `0...` is to have the semantics of a range with no upper bound, I would
expect `for i in 0...` to be an infinite loop, equivalent to `for i in
stride(from: 0, through: Int.max, by: 1)` for Int.max+1 iterations and then
trapping. Which is, well, silly. I'm coming around to thinking that `0...`
is a sexy notation for something we don't need and a poor notation for
something that's more cleanly expressed by plain numbers.


- Dave Sweeris
>
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