<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">It really depends on what you are used to. Swift notation comes from mathematics and formal computer science. You seem to be more used to the Fortran/ALGOL/C syntax. Personally, I prefer the Swift way, its cleaner and less confusing to me. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">At any rate, I don’t think there is a valid reason to reconsider this design aspect of the language. <br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 09 Feb 2016, at 23:45, Oliver M via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" class="">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" class=""><ul style="list-style-type: none" dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5393" class="">
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5395" class="">A brief observation regarding variable type declarations</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5397" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5399" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5401" class="">I find the colon in variable type declarations a little odd.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5403" class="">Consider the following:</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5405" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5407" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5409" class="">var welcomeMessage: String</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5411" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5413" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5415" class="">wouldn't this be cleaner simply written as</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5417" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5419" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5421" class="">var welcomeMessage String</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5423" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5425" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5427" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5429" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5431" class="">the documentation says to read the colon ':' as "of type" in such situations</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5433" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5435" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5437" class="">but does the type "String" itself not imply 'of type String'</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5439" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5441" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5443" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5445" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5447" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5449" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5451" class="">Consider the colon in a function declaration:</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5453" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5455" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5457" class="">func sayHello(personName: String) {}</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5459" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5461" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5463" class="">I would read the portion within the brackets as:</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5465" class="">parameter named personName takes value of type String (because you input values when calling functions)</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5467" class="">with the colon reading 'takes value' and "String" again reading 'of type String'</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5469" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5471" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5473" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5475" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5477" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5479" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5481" class="">I find the colon ':' strongly associated with function input values, and with associations [key:value pairs etc]</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5483" class="">but variables…you don't input anything and they are not inherently associations.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5485" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5487" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5489" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5491" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5493" class="">When coding half asleep I find myself compelled to input a value wherever I see a ':' and I can see myself typing something really really silly</li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5495" class=""><br id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5497" class=""></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5499" class="">var myIndex: "Int" </li>
<li style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Menlo;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1455052779955_5501" class="">myIndex = 0</li></ul></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">swift-evolution mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" class="">swift-evolution@swift.org</a><br class="">https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></div></body></html>