<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">Sounds like a compelling response to me. Thanks, Jordan.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">-- E</div><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Feb 15, 2016, at 11:40 AM, Jordan Rose <<a href="mailto:jordan_rose@apple.com" class="">jordan_rose@apple.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">On Feb 15, 2016, at 8:58, Erica Sadun 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="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="">While discussing leading enumeration dot prefixes, Howard Lovatt asked why static properties and methods could not be inferred via a dot prefix as well. Based on Swift-Evolution conventions, here's a new thread to discuss this idea: specifically, would it be beneficial (and/or possible) to use dot prefixes to denote static member references in instance member code.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Howard wrote:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""></div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">+1 for the proposal, it is wierd to use `.` in some places and not others. </span><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br class=""></div><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;">On the subject of static methods and properties in general, would it be possible for `.name` to be a reference to a static and `name` a reference to an instance? EG:</div><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br class=""></div><div class=""><font face="Menlo" class=""> .name = x // static</font></div><div class=""><font face="Menlo" class=""> name = x // instance</font></div><div class=""><font face="Menlo" class=""> x = name + .name // instance + static</font></div><div class=""><font face="Menlo" class=""> r = name ... .name // instance ... static, needs space</font></div><div class=""><font face="Menlo" class=""> r = name...Type.name // Can still qualify with type name</font></div></div><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman;"><br class=""></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><span class="">Under the current system, you must explicitly name or derive a type to access static members from instance member implementations.</span><div class="" style="font-size: 8px;"><br class="" style="font-size: 8px;"></div><div class="" style="font-size: 8px;"><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"><span class="" style="color: rgb(187, 44, 162);">struct</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>MyStruct {</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="" style="color: rgb(187, 44, 162);">static</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="" style="color: rgb(187, 44, 162);">func</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>staticMember() {}</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 21px;"> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="" style="color: rgb(187, 44, 162);">func</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>instanceMember() {</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(49, 89, 93);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 132, 0);"> // name a type</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"> <span class="" style="color: rgb(79, 129, 135);">MyStruct</span>.<span class="" style="color: rgb(49, 89, 93);">staticMember</span>() <span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 132, 0);">// works</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(49, 89, 93);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 132, 0);"><br class=""></span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(49, 89, 93);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 132, 0);"> // derive a type</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(187, 44, 162);"><span class=""> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>self<span class="">.</span>dynamicType<span class="">.</span><span class="" style="color: rgb(49, 89, 93);">staticMember</span><span class="">()<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span class="" style="color: rgb(0, 132, 0);">// works</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(49, 89, 93);"> </div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);"><span class=""> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>// error: value of tuple type '()' has no member 'staticMember'</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);"><span class=""> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span>// does not work</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"> .staticMember()</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;"> }</div><div class="" style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;">}</div><div class="" style="font-size: 8px;"><br class="" style="font-size: 8px;"></div><div class="" style="font-size: 12px;">Using dot prefixes for static member access:</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">* Has precedent in enumeration members</div><div class="">* Would streamline Swift code</div><div class="">* Is visually differentiated from `self`-prefixed instance member references</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">What are your thoughts, both technical and philosophical, on a change like this? Thanks in advance for your feedback.</div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Dot-prefixed member expressions are currently looked up as static members of the<i class=""> contextual type,</i> which lets you do things like this:</div><div style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><blockquote class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="">import AppKit</div><div class="">let colors: [NSColor] = [.redColor(), .blueColor()]</div></blockquote><br class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">I don't think we want to change or overload that rule to also look up static members of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i class="">enclosing lexical context type</i> (i.e. the type of 'self').</div><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br class=""></div><div class="" style="font-family: Palatino-Roman; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Jordan</div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>