Thursday, January 7, 2016

Swift 2.2 Release Process

Apple:

Swift 2.2 is the first offical release of Swift after Swift was released as open source. It will be a mostly source-compatible release with Swift 2.1, containing a large number of core improvements (e.g., bug fixes, enhancements to diagnostics, faster generated code) without many significant visible changes to the language itself. It is intended to be an intermediate point between Swift 2 and Swift 3, with Swift 3 containing more disruptive changes to both the language and Standard Library.

Commonly Rejected Changes:

This is a list of changes to the Swift language that are frequently proposed, but that are unlikely to be accepted. If you’re interested in pursuing something in this space, please familiarize yourself with the discussions that we have already had. In order to bring one of these topics up, you’ll be expected to add new information to the discussion, not just say “I really want this” or “This exists in some other language and I liked it there”.

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The list of commonly rejected changes seems surprisingly superficial. It's almost entirely about the language's syntax, which is, in the grand scheme of things, the most inconsequential aspect of language design. Does this mean that most change requests are about superficial stuff like curly braces, or that more meaningful change requests haven't yet made it to the "commonly rejected" category, and are still being debated?

@Lukas A lot of the bigger changes have been tabled until after Swift 3. It also seems to be more common for people to ask about the more syntaxy changes—or at least the requests coalesce more naturally.

"It also seems to be more common for people to ask about the more syntaxy changes"

Yeah, I guess that follows Parkinson's law of triviality: "the less important a topic is, the more time is spent discussing it."

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