<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="">Since this keeps coming up, it seems that something would be good here. Perhaps this has been explored before but why can’t we just use dot without the word “self", to indicate self? <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> DotIsSelf</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">{</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> p() -> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">String</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">return</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #d12f1b" class="">"self p"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> }</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> g() {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""> print(.p()) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>// print “self p"</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>print(p)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>// error undefined</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">let</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> p = </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #d12f1b" class="">"local p"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> print(p) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>// print “local p"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> print(.p())<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>// print “self p”</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> }</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> k() -> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #703daa" class="">String</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> {</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> return </span><span style="color: rgb(209, 47, 27);" class="">"self k"</span></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> }</span></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">class</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: #bb2ca2" class="">func</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> j() {</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> print(.k()) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>// print “self k"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>print(k)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>// error undefined</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: rgb(187, 44, 162);" class="">let</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures;" class=""> k = </span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures; color: rgb(209, 47, 27);" class="">"local k” </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""> print(k) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>// print “local k"</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> print(.k()) <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>// print “self k"</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""> }</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo;" class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class="">}</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Menlo; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""><span style="font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures" class=""></span></div><div class="">Self could still be used but “self.” or “.” would be required to access self. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div>Rationale:</div><div class="">• since self is referenced quite often in classes it should be very short and easy to type</div><div class="">• less cluttered than self being everywhere but not ambiguous. whether you mean the local variable or the instance.</div><div class="">* Already very similar notation for enums where you leave off the entity name when it can be implied.</div><div class="">• Does not interfere, that I could see, with other uses of dot. (I am sure I will be corrected if wrong, but putting it out there because I want to know why :-) </div><div class="">• Feels quite intuitive and easy to understand. </div><div class="">* Make Swift safer because it eliminates potential ambiguity as has been pointed out many times.</div><div class="">• Other characters would be less natural than dot. </div><div class="">• In the IDE, hitting dot would immediately bring up self items as choices.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>