I don&#39;t mind `initialize(from:forwardToCount:)`, but I do have trouble with Brent&#39;s suggestion of `initialize(from:backwardFromCount:)`. It adds ambiguity as to whether the pointer in the first argument points to the 0th element or the (count - 1)th element from which initializing is proceeding backward, a problem that does not exist with the currently proposed version `initializeBackward(from:count:)`. I don&#39;t find the symmetry wins compelling enough to overcome that additional ambiguity.<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 10:23 Andrew Trick via swift-evolution &lt;<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jul 2, 2016, at 10:10 PM, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution &lt;<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" target="_blank">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>&gt; wrote:</div><br><div><span style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;float:none;display:inline!important">I have a pile of naming quibbles; rather than describe them all in prose (which turned into a mess), I&#39;ve annotated parts of the &quot;Full UnsafeRawPointer API&quot; section in a gist: &lt;</span><a href="https://gist.github.com/brentdax/8f4ed4decafc1d18c4441092baa13cfe" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px" target="_blank">https://gist.github.com/brentdax/8f4ed4decafc1d18c4441092baa13cfe</a><span style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;float:none;display:inline!important">&gt;.</span><br style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"></div></blockquote></div><br><div>I want to call this out separately because it’s not specific to my proposal and changes the existing UnsafePointer API.</div><div><br></div><div>Brent’s suggestion is to change `initialize(from:count:)` to `initialize(from:forwardToCount:)` for symmetry with the backward operations. It makes perfect sense to me, and it does a better job of conveying that a sequence of elements will be read out of “from”.</div><div><br></div><div>Any objections?</div><div><br><font face="Menlo">  // I&#39;m not happy with the asymmetry of these forwards/backwards <br>  // pairs.<br>  // <br>  // func initialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, count: Int)<br>  //   -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  // func initializeBackward&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, count: Int)<br>  //   -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  func initialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, forwardToCount: Int)<br>    -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  func initialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, backwardFromCount: Int)<br>    -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br><br>  // More detailed thoughts on redesigining `move` methods in the <br>  // email, but for now:<br>  // <br>  // func moveInitialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, count: Int)<br>  //   -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  // func moveInitializeBackward&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, count: Int)<br>  //   -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  func moveInitialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, forwardToCount: Int)<br>    -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;<br>  func moveInitialize&lt;T&gt;(from: UnsafePointer&lt;T&gt;, backwardFromCount: Int)<br>    -&gt; UnsafeMutablePointer&lt;T&gt;</font></div><div><font face="Menlo"><br></font></div><div><font face="Menlo">Andy</font></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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