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<body><div>replace(_:with:) is probably where I use inout the most often (and I think requiring the keyword `inout` instead of & makes that much more cumbersome). Other examples of uses of stdlib APIs are calling decode() on any of the UnicodeCodecType types (I have multiple different pieces of code that does this with UTF8), passing a target stream to print(), invoking isUniquelyReferenced() or isUniquelyReferencedNonObjC() (where taking an inout parameter already is just an implementation detail, and having to write `inout` when calling it makes it even weirder), or calling swap(). And every now and then I do write other once-off functions/methods that use inout (for example, I have an implementation of SipHash, and it uses a helper function called u8to64_le() that takes an inout parameter).<br></div>
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<div>The basic point I'm trying to make, though, is that requiring the use of `inout` at the call site only serves to discourage people from writing new functions that take inout parameters, because it makes calling them more awkward, but inout is a perfectly legitimate feature that doesn't deserve to be discouraged. It may not be used all that often, but by the same argument people don't run into & very often.<br></div>
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<div>And FWIW, if we do ever add Rust-like borrowing, then `inout` would presumably be replaced entirely with the equivalent of `&mut`, which means that argument isn't compelling because we'd just end up switching all those calls that pass `inout x` right back to `&x` or `&mut x`.<br></div>
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<div>-Kevin Ballard</div>
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<div>On Fri, Jan 29, 2016, at 06:39 PM, Jordan Rose wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div>Can you show us some examples? I remember your replace(_:with:); what else do you use?<br></div>
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<div>Jordan<br></div>
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<div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jan 29, 2016, at 17:32 , Kevin Ballard via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:<br></div>
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<div><div><div>-1<br></div>
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<div>I feel like the people who are voting +1 probably don't actually <i>use</i> inout parameters very often, because it seems very obvious that requiring the label "inout" at the function call site is extremely unwieldy. inout parameters aren't some weird edge case that we want to penalize, they're a perfectly legitimate feature of the language, and they should be relatively easy to call.<br></div>
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<div>-Kevin Ballard<br></div>
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<div>On Fri, Jan 29, 2016, at 02:44 PM, Trent Nadeau via swift-evolution wrote:<br></div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="https://github.com/tanadeau/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/00xx-use-inout-at-func-call-site.md">https://github.com/tanadeau/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/00xx-use-inout-at-func-call-site.md</a><br></div>
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<div><pre style=""># Use `inout` at Function Call Sites
* Proposal: TBD
* Author(s): [Trent Nadeau](<a href="http://github.com/tanadeau">http://github.com/tanadeau</a>)
* Status: TBD
* Review manager: TBD
## Introduction
Currently when a function has `inout` parameters, the arguments are passed with the `&` prefix operator. For example:
```swift
func add1(inout num: Int) {
num += 1
}
var n = 5
add1(&n) // n is now 6
```
This operator does not fit with the rest of the language nor how the parameter is written at the function declaration. It should be replaced so that `inout` is used in both locations so that the call site above would instead be written as:
```swift
add1(inout n) // symmetric and now obvious that n can change
```
*Discussion thread TBD*
## Motivation
The `&` prefix operator is a holdover from C where it is usually read as "address of" and creates a pointer. While very useful in C due to its pervasive use of pointers, its meaning is not the same and introduces an unnecessary syntactic stumbling block from users coming from C. Removing this operator and using `inout` removes this stumbling block due to the semantic change.
This operator is also disconnected from how the function declaration is written and does not imply that the argument may (and likely will) change. Using `inout` stands out, making it clear on first read that the variable may change.
It is also possible that Swift may add Rust-like borrowing in the future. In that case, the `&` symbol would be better used for a borrowed reference. Note that Rust uses the same symbol for declaring a borrowed reference and creating one, creating a nice symmetry in that respect of the language. I think Swift would want to have such symmetry as well.
## Detailed design
```
in-out-expression → inout identifier
```
## Alternatives Considered
Keeping the syntax as it currently is.<br></pre><div> </div>
<div>-- <br></div>
<div>Trent Nadeau<br></div>
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