The SwiftExperimental <https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/stdlib/internal/SwiftExperimental/SwiftExperimental.swift> library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project, but first I’d like to solicit opinions about this change. In particular, if there are any users of the library, I’d like to know. I’d also like to know if there would be any interest in reviving a project like this in a different form - ideally out of tree.
CC Dave/Max. Is there any current value to this library? Is there anything in there that would be useful to migrate to another place like test/Prototypes?
···
On Jul 19, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Robert Widmann via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org> wrote:
Hello all,
The SwiftExperimental <https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/stdlib/internal/SwiftExperimental/SwiftExperimental.swift> library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project, but first I’d like to solicit opinions about this change. In particular, if there are any users of the library, I’d like to know. I’d also like to know if there would be any interest in reviving a project like this in a different form - ideally out of tree.
On Jul 19, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Robert Widmann via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org> wrote:
Hello all,
The SwiftExperimental <https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/stdlib/internal/SwiftExperimental/SwiftExperimental.swift> library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project,
CC Dave/Max. Is there any current value to this library?
There's plenty of value in there, but none that justifies keeping it in
the standard library. Someone should spin off the contents to one or
more SwiftPM projects.
Is there anything in there that would be useful to migrate to another
place like test/Prototypes?
The main value of keeping things in test/Prototypes is that they reveal
compiler breakage that would prevent us from actually landing things in
the library once they've gone through -evolution. An important part of
this is that they keep the compiler from breaking new library features
that are under development. I don't think there's anything in
experimental that's directly related to current development goals, but
there might still be something of interest as a regression test.
Someone needs to look at the code and make a determination. I don't
have an opinion offhand.
···
on Wed Jul 19 2017, Michael Ilseman <swift-dev-AT-swift.org> wrote:
On Jul 19, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Robert Widmann via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org> wrote:
Hello all,
The SwiftExperimental
<https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/stdlib/internal/SwiftExperimental/SwiftExperimental.swift>
library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library
features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable
interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when
significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental
has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter
parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project, but
first I’d like to solicit opinions about this change. In
particular, if there are any users of the library, I’d like to know.
I’d also like to know if there would be any interest in reviving a
project like this in a different form - ideally out of tree.
Is there any bug or source compatibility signal to glean from maintenance changes? If so, it might be worth moving it to the source compatibility suite. Makes sense to get it out of the main compiler tree, though.
-Joe
···
On Jul 20, 2017, at 12:54 PM, Chris Lattner via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org> wrote:
On Jul 19, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Robert Widmann via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org> wrote:
Hello all,
The SwiftExperimental library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project,
I doubt it. These are not widely used APIs, so even if they broke, it wouldn’t matter. Keeping the source compatibility suite focused on real world code makes the most sense IMO.
I’d suggest just nuking SwiftExperimental. If someone cares enough to move them to a new SPM package somewhere, then they can do that at any time - the code is always available in git history.
-Chris
···
On Jul 21, 2017, at 8:57 AM, Joe Groff <jgroff@apple.com> wrote:
On Jul 20, 2017, at 12:54 PM, Chris Lattner via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org <mailto:swift-dev@swift.org>> wrote:
On Jul 19, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Robert Widmann via swift-dev <swift-dev@swift.org <mailto:swift-dev@swift.org>> wrote:
Hello all,
The SwiftExperimental <https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/stdlib/internal/SwiftExperimental/SwiftExperimental.swift> library’s stated purpose is to be a place where experimental library features could be explored without fear of committing to a stable interface. At least, that was its goal many years ago when significant work on it was last done. Since then, SwiftExperimental has sat untouched except for passing committers that need to alter parts of its implementation for language changes.
I would like to remove this library and target from the project,
+1
Is there any bug or source compatibility signal to glean from maintenance changes?