<div dir="ltr">I originally thought that would be too many changes for one proposal but if y’all think it’s a good idea to deal with those functions too I’m happy to add it to the proposal!<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 5:07 PM, Michael Ilseman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:milseman@apple.com" target="_blank">milseman@apple.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>If you’re considering moving allocate/deallocate to Unsafe*BufferPointer, then you probably also want to consider doing the same for initialize, deinitialize, and various move functions as well.</div><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5"><div>On Jul 12, 2017, at 12:16 PM, Taylor Swift via swift-evolution <<a href="mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org" target="_blank">swift-evolution@swift.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="m_-1037881327694107798Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div><div><div><div class="h5"><div dir="ltr"><p>Hi all, I’ve written up a proposal to modify the unsafe pointer API for greater consistency, safety, and ease of use.</p><p>~~~<br></p><p>Swift currently offers two sets of pointer types — singular pointers such as <code>UnsafeMutablePointer</code>, and vector (buffer) pointers such as <code>UnsafeMutable</code><strong><code>Buffer</code></strong><code>Pointer</code>. This implies a natural separation of tasks the two kinds of pointers are meant to do. For example, buffer pointers implement <code>Collection</code> conformance, while singular pointers do not.</p><p>However, some aspects of the pointer design contradict these implied
roles. It is possible to allocate an arbitrary number of instances from a
type method on a singular pointer, but not from a buffer pointer. The
result of such an operation returns a singular pointer, even though a
buffer pointer would be more appropriate to capture the information
about the <em>number</em> of instances allocated. It’s possible to subscript into a singular pointer, even though they are not real <code>Collection</code>s. Some parts of the current design turn UnsafePointers into downright <em>Dangerous</em>Pointers, leading users to believe that they have allocated or freed memory when in fact, they have not.</p><p>This proposal seeks to iron out these inconsistencies, and offer a
more convenient, more sensible, and less bug-prone API for Swift
pointers.</p><p><<a href="https://gist.github.com/kelvin13/a9c033193a28b1d4960a89b25fbffb06" target="_blank">https://gist.github.com/<wbr>kelvin13/<wbr>a9c033193a28b1d4960a89b25fbffb<wbr>06</a>></p><p>~~~<br></p></div></div></div>
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