On Apr 27, 2016, at 17:23, Howard Lovatt via swift-evolution 
<swift-evolution@swift.org<mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:

I think that you should *always* have to write `override` when implementing a 
protocol method, you can think of this as override an abstract declaration. In 
particular I think the following should be enforced:

    protocol A { func a() }
    extension A { override func a() { ... } }
    struct AnA: A { override func a() { ... } }

    protocol B { func b() }
    struct AB: B { override func b() { ... } }


I'm rather new to the list - but I would like to say that I agree with this. I 
think it gives clarity both to code readability, and for learning the language.
Best
Josh

I think this change will work out well since it mimics what happened in Java, 
originally the Java annotation `@Override` was used much like `override` is 
currently used in Swift. However it was problematic and was changed so that you 
always add the annotation, as shown above (in the Swift context). One of the 
big advantages of this change is that the error messages are much better (this 
was very noticeable in Java).

This proposal has come up before on swift-evolution, so it obviously has some 
support.

On Thursday, 28 April 2016, Erica Sadun via swift-evolution 
<swift-evolution@swift.org<mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:
From the Swift Programming Language: Methods on a subclass that override the 
superclass's implementation are marked with override-overriding a method by 
accident, without override, is detected by the compiler as an error. The 
compiler also detects methods with override that don't actually override any 
method in the superclass.

I would like to extend this cautious approach to protocols, forcing the 
developer to deliberately override an implementation that's inherited from a 
protocol extension. This would prevent accidental overrides and force the user 
to proactively choose to implement a version of a protocol member that already 
exists in the protocol extension.

I envision this as using the same `override` keyword that's used in class based 
inheritance but extend it to protocol inheritance:

protocol A {
    func foo()
}

extension A {
    func foo() { .. default implementation ... }
}

type B: A {

    override required func foo () { ... overrides implementation ... }
}


I'd also like to bring up two related topics, although they probably should at 
some point move to their own thread if they have any legs:

Related topic 1: How should a consumer handle a situation where two unrelated 
protocols both require the same member and offer different default 
implementations. Can they specify which implementation to accept or somehow run 
both?

type B: A, C {
    override required func foo() { A.foo(); C.foo() }
}

Related topic 2: How can a consumer "inherit" the behavior of the default 
implementation (like calling super.foo() in classes) and then extend that 
behavior further. This is a bit similar to how the initialization chaining 
works. I'd like to be able to call A.foo() and then add custom follow-on 
behavior rather than entirely replacing the behavior.

type B: A {
    override required func foo() { A.foo(); ... my custom behavior ... }
}

cc'ing in Jordan who suggested a new thread on this and Doug, who has already 
expressed some objections so I want him to  have the opportunity to bring that 
discussion here.

- E
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