[swift-evolution] Proposal: Introduce User-defined "Dynamic Member Lookup" Types

[Joe DeCapo]

> On Dec 4, 2017, at 11:15 AM, Tino Heth <2th at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> This is a bridge to allow easy access to the vast number of libraries that currently exist in those dynamic language domains, and to ease the transition of the multitudes of those programmers into Swift.
> 
> I’ve read several posts that gave me the impression that Python has a huge user base of people who are tired of using that language (the cited statement is just an arbitrary pick)… but is that actually true?
> Afaik, Python never became as common as Java, C# or C++, and it never had much support from big companies — people decided to use Python not because it’s some sort of standard, but because they liked it and found it to be a language that’s easy to learn.
> 
> So the whole story of „let’s make it easier for those poor Python guys to switch to a real language“ sounds very much like hubris to me.
> Of course, that statement is an exaggeration, but still:
> Did anyone ever ask the Python-community who actually wants to switch to Swift? I don’t think there would be enough positive feedback to take it as a justification for the proposed changes.

That's not really what I meant, and I haven't gotten the impression that that's the main motivating reason. Partly it's for the benefit of the Swift community to leverage many currently existing, mature libraries that exist but are written in dynamic languages. And it makes it possible for someone interested in trying out Swift who has experience with those libraries to still be able to leverage the things they're already familiar with during the transition. There may not be an overwhelming number of developers who have to work in these languages but would prefer Swift, but I don't think there necessarily needs to be for this to still be a worthwhile change.
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