[swift-users] What is up with names not being Strings any more in Swift 4?

[Manfred Schubert]

> Am 18.07.2017 um 00:58 schrieb Greg Parker via swift-users <swift-users at swift.org>:
> 
> 
>> On Jul 17, 2017, at 10:01 AM, Nevin Brackett-Rozinsky via swift-users <swift-users at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Could / should these types be ExpressibleByStringLiteral?
> 
> They should not. We are deliberately discouraging the string literal of the name. The string literal should be in only one place: the definition of the name constant. Everything else should use the constant. The compiler can provide autocompletion and typo detection of the constant. The string literal doesn't get that.

The thing is, with Notification.Name, you have to use them at least twice. So everybody is creating a constant. And typos in the String that defines the constant don't matter. So this solves the problem. With NSNib however, the default case is to use the name only once. And I would say with NSImage it's probably the same. I don't think people have been defining constants for these when they are only used once. It makes the code unnecessarily longer and more complicated. And a typo in the String that defines the constant matter just as much as a typo in the String literal. So in the default case this doesn't solve a problem.


Kind regards,

Manfred