[swift-evolution] [swift-users] How does "Sequence.joined" work?

[Rob Mayoff]

On Tue, Aug 8, 2017 at 11:51 PM, Taylor Swift via swift-users <
swift-users at swift.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 12:29 AM, Félix Cloutier via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
>> Yes, exactly. An Array<T> is a struct wrapper for a reference type
>> representing storage. Mutating functions first check if they own the only
>> reference to the storage using isKnownUniquelyReferenced
>> <https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/2429905-isknownuniquelyreferenced>.
>> If not, they make a fresh copy before applying the mutating operation.
>>
>> There's no difference for `let` arrays. Access control is enforced at
>> compile-time through Array's design: the compiler will prevent you from
>> calling `mutating` functions on `let` structs, and Array is careful to not
>> expose functionality that could modify its storage outside of `mutating`
>> functions.
>>
>> There is no secret. Anyone could implement the same thing only using
>> publicly available and documented compiler features. In fact, it's been
>> done already for some very powerful collections
>> <https://github.com/lorentey/BTree>.
>>
>
> This isn’t entirely true. That BTree module readme seems to contain a lot
> of unsubstantiated hyperbole. It’s possible to implement a classic
> red-black tree in Swift that performs better than a sorted Array, down to
> about *n* = 1,500 items, not *n* = *100,000* items as it claims.
> (Actually, heap allocators these days are good enough that performance is
> on par with Array all the way down to *n* = 1.) Red-Black trees are slow
> when *distributed* as packages because of the crossmodule optimization
> boundary. (This also means the BTree module is much slower than Array for
> most reasonable *n*.) It’s possible to write modules using compiler
> attributes that mitigate this slowdown (reclaiming over 50% of lost
> performance) but it’s hacky and forces you to design your libraries like
> the standard library (meaning: ugly underscored properties everywhere and
> everything is public). And these features aren’t “publicly available” or
> documented at all.
>

This seems harsh. I didn't notice Félix making any claims about BTree's
performance. The necessary API for implementing COW is indisputably public
and documented:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/2429905-isknownuniquelyreferenced
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