<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="">* What is your evaluation of the proposal?<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I support this proposal. I work on a framework, and I was actually able to track down a user-reported crash to the lack of this sort of bridging. An engineer overlooked that an `Optional` value passed into an `Any` parameter, would be forwarded to the Objective-C API as an opaque object. Since we had not tested that particular type, we were unable to detect this issue. Adding this sort of bridging behavior (explicitly in the implementation of our function) is how we were able to fix this issue since the Objective-C API did accept `NSNull`.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Others on the mailing list have brought up concerns that this sort of bridging will defer the detection of API misuse in the case of `NSArray`. I think that, while that is a fair concern, it ignores other cases where this sort of bridging will actually fix crashes that would otherwise occur. Further, I think these concerns forget that fact that `Any` is only used for dynamic APIs. If you'd like a strongly typed `NSArray`, you would use Objective-C lightweight generics. I would actually argue that dynamically bridging `NSNull` to `nil` is most consistent with the current behavior of Swift.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">For example, the following cast succeeds since `Int?` is [kinda sorta] a subtype of `Int`.</div><div class="">```</div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Optional<Int>.Some(3) as Any as! Int</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">```</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Thus, in Swift you can treat an `Optional<T>` stored inside an `Any` as if it were simply a `T`. In Objective-C though, this is not the case since there's no equivalent to this sort of dynamic `as!` cast. As such, it would be reasonable to bridge `Optional<T>` to `T | NSNull` such that we can similarly treat `T?` as if it were an `T` in Objective-C. Given that `Any` is used in dynamic APIs that can be passed *any* type, I don't think it is worrisome that this will convert to `NSNull`. If the API is designed to only accept certain types, this should be annotated with generics.</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">* Is the problem being addressed significant enough to warrant a change to Swift?<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I think so. I definitely don't think this issue is as important as fixing numeric bridging, but this seems like a logical improvement to the current bridging behavior.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">* Does this proposal fit well with the feel and direction of Swift?<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Definitely. In my understanding, Objective-C interop is a major feature of Swift. The Swift team has done a fantastic job improving this since the first release of Swift, and this seems like a logical, incremental step in the same direction.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">* If you have used other languages or libraries with a similar feature, how do you feel that this proposal compares to those?<br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I'm not familiar with other languages with such comprehensive bridging features as Swift. Objective-C is built atop C, and thus has multiple concepts of null (NSNull and NULL), but it has never made sense to bridge between these because Objective-C is a superset of C, not an unrelated language that interops with C (and in this case, these separate types were necessary, something that has been avoided in Swift).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">* How much effort did you put into your review? A glance, a quick reading, or an in-depth study?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I've spent a significant number of hours dealings with issues causes by the lack of bridging, both with `Int8` and friends and here. The lack of bridging of `NSNull` and `nil` is definitely less expected than the lack of numeric bridging, but still problematic for those building Swift wrappers for a dynamic API on top of an Objective-C APIs.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Sep 2, 2016, at 3:50 PM, Douglas Gregor 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=us-ascii" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Hello Swift community,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">The review of SE-0140 "Bridge Optional As Its Payload Or NSNull" begins now and runs through September 8, 2016. The proposal is available here:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 1em; border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font color="#777777" face="-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Segoe UI, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, Segoe UI Symbol" size="3" class=""><a href="https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0140-bridge-optional-to-nsnull.md" class="">https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0140-bridge-optional-to-nsnull.md</a></font></div></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Reviews are an important part of the Swift evolution process. All reviews should be sent to the swift-evolution mailing list at</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 1em; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; -webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; color: rgb(64, 120, 192); text-decoration: none;" class="">https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution</a></div></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">or, if you would like to keep your feedback private, directly to the review manager. When replying, please try to keep the proposal link at the top of the message:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 1em; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px;" class="">Proposal link:</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 1em; border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0140-bridge-optional-to-nsnull.md" class="">https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0140-bridge-optional-to-nsnull.md</a></div></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px;" class="">Reply text</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 1em; border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="">Other replies</div></blockquote></blockquote><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 16px; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.25; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a id="user-content-what-goes-into-a-review-1" class="anchor" href="https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution#what-goes-into-a-review-1" aria-hidden="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; -webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; color: rgb(64, 120, 192); text-decoration: none; float: left; padding-right: 4px; margin-left: -20px; line-height: 1;"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="octicon octicon-link" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>What goes into a review?</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">The goal of the review process is to improve the proposal under review through constructive criticism and, eventually, determine the direction of Swift. When writing your review, here are some questions you might want to answer in your review:</p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 2em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><li style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">What is your evaluation of the proposal?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.25em;" class="">Is the problem being addressed significant enough to warrant a change to Swift?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.25em;" class="">Does this proposal fit well with the feel and direction of Swift?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.25em;" class="">If you have used other languages or libraries with a similar feature, how do you feel that this proposal compares to those?</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.25em;" class="">How much effort did you put into your review? A glance, a quick reading, or an in-depth study?</li></ul><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">More information about the Swift evolution process is available at</p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px 1em; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); border-left-width: 0.25em; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><a href="https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/process.md" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; -webkit-text-decoration-skip: objects; color: rgb(64, 120, 192); text-decoration: none;" class="">https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/process.md</a></div></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Thank you,</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">-Doug</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 16px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol'; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Review Manager</p></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=""></body></html>