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I often write code with this pattern:

struct SomethingUseful {
  static let initialSize: Int = 1
  var size: Int = Self.initialSize
}

This works great, and provides a named constant for the initial value. However, occasionally SomethingUseful needs to be a reference type, so I declare it as a final class:

final class SomethingUseful {
  static let initialSize: Int = 1
  var size: Int = Self.initialSize
}

Unfortunately, that gives an error on the third line:

error: covariant 'Self' type cannot be referenced from a stored property initializer

This issue was raised on the forums back in 2020, and before that it was reported as a bug in 2019. Has there been any progress toward fixing it?

The workaround of writing out the full type name is fine, but it reduces readability.

• • •

For that matter, even in a struct, having to write Self.initialSize rather than just initialSize at the instance level also reduces readability. One could technically work around that by declaring the somewhat duplicative var initialSize: Int { Self.initialSize }, but that’s entirely boilerplate. Is there a better solution?

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