> On 20 Jan 2017, at 10:30, Maxim Veksler via swift-evolution > <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote: > > One ask - make string interpolation great again? > > Taking from examples supplied at > https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/docs/StringManifesto.md#string-interpolation > > "Column 1: \(n.format(radix:16, width:8)) *** \(message)" > > Why not use: > > "Column 1: ${n.format(radix:16, width:8)} *** $message" > > Which for my preference makes the syntax feel more readable, avoids the > "double ))" in terms of string interpolation termination and function > termination points. And if that's not enough brings the "feel" of the > language to be scriptable in nature common in bash, sh, zsh and co.. > scripting interpreters and has been adopted as part of ES6 interpolation > syntax[1]. >
This idea came up once before on Swift Evo. The arguments against are: 1. Swift already has an “escape” character for inserting non literal stuff into strings - the “\” character. Either you have two - increasing complexity for both the developer and the Swift compiler’s tokeniser - or you have to change everything that uses “\” to use $ e.g. $t $n instead of \t \n. 2. The dollar sign is a disastrous symbol to use for an special character, especially in the USA where it is commonly used to signify the local currency. Yes, I know it is used for interpolation in Perl, Shell and Javascript and others, but “this other language I like does X, therefore Swift should do X” is not a good argument. 3. There is already quite a lot of code that uses \( … ) for interpolation, this would be a massive breaking change. _______________________________________________ swift-evolution mailing list swift-evolution@swift.org https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
