[swift-users] If and Only If

[Don Wills]

IMO, clarity is more important than brevity, particularly when novices and non-English speakers might not "get it".

What's the harm in using "if and only if" instead of "iff"?  IMO, none.  I suggest using words, not a TLA.

Don Wills


> On Feb 8, 2016, at 7:35 PM, zhaoxin肇鑫 via swift-users <swift-users at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> I, as a none-native-English-speaker, do think iff as a type error at first for a long time. And I doubt it as I see it everywhere. But I have never look it up.
> 
> I just use iff as if and do not think there is a much difference. I thank to Brian for he finally letting me know the real meaning. I think if itself means iff, but I am not computer major, so I can only represent as a layman.
> 
> zhaoxin
> 
> On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 2:18 AM, Erica Sadun via swift-users <swift-users at swift.org <mailto:swift-users at swift.org>> wrote:
> I personally wouldn't change it.
> 
> A few thoughts:
> 
> * It's a well known term of art among developers
> * If you see "iff" more than once, you're going to be curious
> * Hopefully you'll type "what does iff mean" into Google at that point and Google will respond like this: http://imgur.com/1a7b3rp <http://imgur.com/1a7b3rp>
> * see also: http://ericasadun.com/2015/09/30/dear-erica-whats-iff/ <http://ericasadun.com/2015/09/30/dear-erica-whats-iff/>
> 
> -- E
> 
> 
>> On Feb 7, 2016, at 9:16 PM, Brian Bauer via swift-users <swift-users at swift.org <mailto:swift-users at swift.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> I apologize in advance if this subject has already been discussed and decided (as far as I can tell, the mailing list archives go back only about 60 days)…
>> 
>> When running through the Swift Tour portion of the Swift eBook, on page 10 there is a code snippet showing an example of the switch statement.  While typing that into an Xcode playground, I get a code completion popup on the “hasSuffix” method and the documentation says “Returns true iff self ends with suffix.”  This looks like a typo.  I know that it means “If and Only If” but to a less experienced developer this is likely to be misunderstood, especially as I can find no explanation for “iff” anywhere in the documentation.
>> 
>> The source of this documentation nugget is a comment in /stdlib/public/core/StringLegacy.swift, so I think discussion of the topic is relevant here.
>> 
>> Swift is touted as being friendly to new programmers and I don’t think it is reasonable to expect new programmers to understand “iff” and I also don’t think it is reasonable to spend a paragraph explaining “iff” at the beginning of an introduction to Swift, thus I suggest removing “iff” from all code comments that are likely to become user-facing documentation (the triple slash).  Or at the very least, user-facing documentation that is likely to be read by beginners.
>> 
>> A quick grep of the source gives me somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 instances of “iff” in a triple-slash comment, and I am more than happy to make all of the changes and submit pull requests.  Before taking on that work, however, I would like to know if such a change would be welcome or if anyone has a better idea, etc.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Brian
>> 
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