[swift-evolution] Pitch: Remove default initialization of optional bindings

[Alejandro Martinez]

I won’t complain a lot if it’s decided to be removed but I would prefer it to stay. I use it constantly.

Sent from my iPad

> On 6 Nov 2017, at 22:41, Jon Shier via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
>    I use this on all of my mutable optional properties, when I have to use them. It’s just that little extra bit of code I don’t need to write, and it feels a lot like parameter defaults in use. By surface area, I assume you mean the fact that it’s an implicit behavior people may need to remember? As something like that, this seems like a very small one. As for users knowing about it, I’m guessing it falls into one of those things that people just never explicitly notice but would likely have a huge impact on anyone with lots of mutable optionals. Developers from other languages may also assume this behavior, since it replicates the “nil by default” behavior seen in other languages. 
>    Ultimately, while I won’t feel this deeply, since I tend to view mutable optionals as poor practice in Swift, it’s a nice little convenience that will likely impact everyone using mutable optionals. If you really want to find out, perhaps run it agains the compatibility suite?
> 
> 
> Jon
> 
>> On Nov 6, 2017, at 5:33 PM, Slava Pestov via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> Right now, the following two declarations are equivalent:
>> 
>> struct S {
>> var x: Int?
>> }
>> 
>> struct S {
>> var x: Int? = nil
>> }
>> 
>> That is, mutable bindings of sugared optional type (but not Optional<T>!) always have a default value of ‘nil’. This feature increases the surface area of the language for no good reason, and I would like to deprecate it in -swift-version 5 with a short proposal. Does anyone feel strongly about giving it up? I suspect most Swift users don’t even know it exists.
>> 
>> Slava
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