[swift-evolution] [Proposal] Foundation Swift Archival & Serialization

[David Hart]

> On 16 Mar 2017, at 19:34, Zach Waldowski via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2017, at 02:23 PM, Matthew Johnson via swift-evolution wrote:
>> I don’t have an example but I don’t see a problem either.  There are two options for specifying the return type manually.  We can use the signature you used above and use `as` to specify the expected type:
>> 
>> let i = decode(.myKey) as Int
> 
> The awkwardness of this syntax is exactly what I'm referring to. Would a beginner know to use "as Int" or ": Int"? Why would they? The "prettiness" of the simple case doesn't make up for how difficult it is to understand and fix its failure cases.
> 
> Any official Swift or Foundation API shouldn't, or shouldn't need to, make use of "tricky" syntax.

Two arguments:

1) Most of the time, you will be setting the return value of decode into a typed property and will not need ‘as’.
2) Even when you do need it, its not tricky syntax: it’s the official way to direct the type inference engine in Swift.

David.

>> If we don’t support this in Foundation we will continue to see 3rd party libraries that do this.
> 
> The proposal's been out for less than 24 hours, is it really productive to already be taking our ball and go home over such a minor thing?
> 
> Zach Waldowski
> zach at waldowski.me <mailto:zach at waldowski.me>
> 
> 
> 
> 
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