[swift-evolution] Proposal to change Logical NOT Operator from exclamation mark ( ! ) to something else

[André “Zephyz” Videla]

As of today, this is possible:

prefix operator ¬
prefix func ¬ (value: Bool) -> Bool {
    return !value
}

let t = true
let f = ¬t

I have to admit that I quite like this but it has a couple drawbacks:
1: if you've never seen the ¬ operator in math it makes no more sense than "!"
2: It's quite tricky to find on your keyboard depending on your layout
3: maybe ~ is a better fit?

Seems like a lot of work for a very small improvement. But I'm all for it.

André


> On 15 Feb 2017, at 22:28, Derrick Ho via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> There is no need to change it
> 
> Since the context basically disambiguates the meaning of !
> 
> The next best thing is to compare it to false
> 
> (val == false) // same as !val
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 3:02 PM David Waite via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> If someone came with a nice syntax I’d be for this. I can’t imagine what that would be.
> 
> I doubt there is an alternate prefix or postfix operator that would pass muster, due to ‘!’ already meaning the appropriate thing in so many languages, and swift only supporting symbolic operators.
> 
> I can’t think of a method on boolean which would read properly either, e.g.
> 
> 	if isValid.not() {…}
> 
> The closest I could think to a decent bike shed color would be a global function:
> 
> 	if not(isValid) {…}
> 
> -DW
> 
>> On Feb 15, 2017, at 11:10 AM, Robert Widmann via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> So you've identified the problem, but what do you propose as a solution here?  
>> 
>> It should be noted that a (non-stdlib) language-level answer to this question has already been discussed and rejected (https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/2015-December/000032.html <https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/2015-December/000032.html>).
>> 
>> ~Robert Widmann
>> 
>> 2017/02/15 9:02、Sadiq via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> のメッセージ:
>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> I would like to suggest to change Logical NOT Operator from ! to something else. 
>>> It will increase the readability of the code and will avoid any confusion with the symbol used for force unwrapping of optional values. 
>>> It would be easier for new programmers to learn Swift as the first language. 
>>> I don't understand the rational behind using the same operator for two different purposes. 
>>> 
>>> Thanks and Regards,
>>> Mohammad Sadiq
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