Proposal Returned to Pre-Review Discussion
Thank you to everyone who has participated in the review of this proposal. I am thrilled to see the amount of passion and energy everyone has in making Swift a better language.
This has been a polarizing discussion. It also has not the best conducted discussions we've had in Swift Evolution's history. In hindsight, this review was launched prematurely while important details were still being shaken out in the pitch phase. It was my mistake, as the review manager, to schedule the review before more of that discussion had settled and the concerns in the pitch phase sufficiently addressed. This is a serious change to the language, and it should not feel rushed or insufficiently vetted. As such, I think it is important to allow the proponents of the proposal to have the opportunity to go back and incorporate the feedback from this review and re-engage the discussion, starting at the pitch phase, before we consider re-engaging this topic for formal review. This is not just my desire as the review manager, but the proposal authors have shared the same opinion and desire.
I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the importance of the Code of Conduct standards for Swift, and the general principles they are meant to impart on how we run the community. I think it is crucial that reviews should be held to high standards, but we should always refrain from criticizing the review authors or otherwise engaging in what can be perceived as personal slights. Everyone engaged on Swift Evolution is interested in making Swift better, and it takes a lot of guts to write a proposal in the first place and debate it with the community. It is fine to remark that a proposal feels premature to review and that important things need to be considered — but let's avoid taking it beyond that and making comments about people themselves. Everyone has good intentions here, and everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt even when making mistakes. I hope everyone who participated on this review thread and on the pitch can step back and ask how they would have preferred the discussion on the thread could have gone a bit better, either in their own participation or the participation of others. In every review discussion, let's make sure we learn as a community from that experience so we can continue to find the best way to engage in topics like these that are contentious but are all in the spirit of making Swift better.
I want to extend my sincere thanks to the proposal authors, @nate_chandler and @anandabits, and to everyone who participated in this review.