<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=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 28, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Brad Hilton 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=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Type nesting allows some convenient and straightforward semantics that we see inside the Swift standard library such as views on String like String.CharacterView, String.UnicodeScalarView, etc. However a protocol cannot be nested in a type and gives a non-obvious error that the “Declaration is only valid at file scope.” Just as other nested types allow proper contextual scoping, a nested protocol could make a lot sense for a number of patterns. For example, there are many “Delegate” protocols throughout the Cocoa frameworks. Here’s a controller/delegate pattern before and after type nesting:<div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">// Without type nesting</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">protocol</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> MyControllerDelegate : </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> MyController {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(79, 129, 135);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">weak</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">var</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> delegate: </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">MyControllerDelegate</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class="">?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">// With type nesting</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 132, 0);" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> MyController {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">weak</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">var</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> delegate: </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #4f8187" class="">Delegate</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">?</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">protocol</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> Delegate : </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> }</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">Though the change is mostly semantics, it does allow an explicit association between My Controller and the Delegate instead of only a named association. It also cleans up the module name space like other nested types and makes associated protocols more discoverable in my opinion. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica;" class="">I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><br class=""></div><div>Note that this cannot work when any enclosing type is generic, e.g.,</div><div><br class=""></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;" class=""><div><font face="Menlo" class="">class MyController<T> {</font></div><div><font face="Menlo" class=""> protocol Delegate {</font></div><div><font face="Menlo" class=""> // I’ve just created a parameterized protocol!</font></div><div><font face="Menlo" class=""> }</font></div><div><font face="Menlo" class="">}</font></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div><div>Otherwise, I don’t see any issues with the proposal, and I like that it eliminates a large number of top-level names.</div><div><br class=""></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Doug</div><div><br class=""></div><br class=""></body></html>