<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://ericasadun.com/2016/01/13/a-few-thoughts-on-swift-symbologygist/">http://ericasadun.com/2016/01/13/a-few-thoughts-on-swift-symbologygist/</a><br>
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<br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Fri, Jan 15, 2016, 21:53 Amir Michail via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 15, 2016, at 6:50 PM, Jordan Rose <<a href="mailto:jordan_rose@apple.com" target="_blank">jordan_rose@apple.com</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><blockquote type="cite"><div><br>On Jan 15, 2016, at 15:39, Amir Michail <<a href="mailto:a.michail@me.com" target="_blank">a.michail@me.com</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div><br><blockquote type="cite">On Jan 15, 2016, at 6:37 PM, Jordan Rose <<a href="mailto:jordan_rose@apple.com" target="_blank">jordan_rose@apple.com</a>> wrote:<br><br>Hi, Amir. What benefit does this feature have for a Swift programmer? In my mind, it makes it harder to reason about what something does, because there may now be multiple names for the same variable.<br><br>Jordan<br></blockquote><br>What’s the point of supporting unicode characters in identifiers if almost all of them are too hard to type?<br><br>With this approach, you can use standard text to type them and have them converted to unicode every once in a while (e.g., on a commit).<br></div></div></blockquote></div><br style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">I think the primary reason to support Unicode in identifiers is because some programmers use non-English names. Using them for e.g. math terminology is a bonus, but I don't think that's a reason to have special support in the core language.</div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Now, I could be convinced otherwise (cf. C++'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digraphs_and_trigraphs" target="_blank">digraphs</a>), but I don't see why you wouldn't just name the APIs something convenient to begin with, or define a shortcut in your editor rather than in the language.</div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><br></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><div>Consider a linear algebra library that makes use of unicode throughout its API. Having to define the shortcuts yourself is less convenient than having them come with the library.</div><div><br></div><div>Moreover, the IDE could even help you by showing you what you can type using standard characters to generate a particular unicode identifier as can be automatically determined via unicodealiases in the library source.</div></div></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Best,</div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Jordan</div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">P.S. As a general note, please include in the first message for a feature <i>why</i> you think a particular feature is a good idea for Swift. That saves a bit of time for those of us who may not immediately see the benefit.</div></div></blockquote></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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