<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=""><div class="">Current array literal syntax (i.e. “[a, b, c]”) works for dense and/or linear arrays, but isn’t so great later on when we add fixed-size arrays and the defined (non-zero) elements are sparse and/or the array is multi-dimensional (not nested). In these cases I’m thinking of leading each element with its coordinate:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">… 6: a, … // complete value, linear array</div><div class="">… (1, 2): b, … // complete value, multi-dimensional array</div><div class="">… (let x, let y) where y % 2 == 0: c * y + x, … // pattern of qualifying coordinates</div><div class="">… default: d, … // when no other initializer covers an element (Use “_” instead?)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A complete coordinate beats a pattern, which beats a default. The issue I see here is that I’m using a colon as a separator between the coordinate expression and the value expression. Would that interfere with dictionary literal syntax? Would it help the we’ll most likely have to demand that the object receiving the literal has to have its type specified (with whatever syntax we agree on), as either a declared object with a type annotation or a function parameter (for a function either without overload or with the variant used otherwise made clear)?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); 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; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">— </div><div class="">Daryle Walker<br class="">Mac, Internet, and Video Game Junkie<br class="">darylew AT mac DOT com </div></div>
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