On Oct 2, 2017, at 09:14, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi...@gmail.com 
<mailto:xiaodi...@gmail.com>> wrote:

> What is your use case for this?
> 
> On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 10:56 David Sweeris via swift-evolution 
> <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:
> 
> On Oct 1, 2017, at 22:01, Chris Lattner via swift-evolution 
> <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 1, 2017, at 9:26 PM, Kenny Leung via swift-evolution 
>>> <swift-evolution@swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution@swift.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi All.
>>> 
>>> I’d like to help as well. I have fun with operators.
>>> 
>>> There is also the issue of code security with invisible unicode characters 
>>> and characters that look exactly alike.
>> 
>> Unless there is a compelling reason to add them, I think we should ban 
>> invisible characters.  What is the harm of characters that look alike?
> 
> Especially if people want to use the character in question as both an 
> identifier and an operator: We can make the character an identifier and its 
> lookalike an operator (or the other way around).

Off the top of my head...
In calculus, β€œπ–½β€ (MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF SMALL D) would be a fine substitute 
for "d" in β€œπ–½y/𝖽x” ("the derivative of y(x) with respect to x").
In statistics, we could use "𝖒" (MATHEMATICAL SANS-SERIF CAPITAL C), as in 
"5𝖒3" to mimic the "5C3" notation ("5 choose 3"). And although not strictly an 
issue of identifiers vs operators, β€œοΌβ€ (FULLWIDTH EXCLAMATION MARK) would be an 
ok substitution (that extra space on the right looks funny) for "!" in β€œ4!” ("4 
factorial").

I'm sure there are other examples from math/science/<insert any 
"symbology"-heavy DSL here>, but β€œd” in particular is one that I’ve wanted for 
a while since Swift classifies "βˆ‚" (the partial derivative operator) as an 
operator rather than an identifier, making it impossible to use a consistent 
syntax between normal derivatives and partial derivatives (normal derivatives 
are "d(y)/d(x)", whereas partial derivatives get to drop the parens "βˆ‚y/βˆ‚x")

- Dave Sweeris
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