> On 22 Jun 2016, at 16:41, Brandon Knope <[email protected]> wrote: > > My point was not to argue for the removal of \. My point was that there is a > measurable way to test the usability of such a key
Your heat map doesn’t test the usability of a key, it tests the frequency with which it was pressed. The fact that there was no coloured blob on the backslash key just means you don’t use it very often. > > Brandon > >> On Jun 22, 2016, at 11:30 AM, Jeremy Pereira >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I find it somewhat disturbing that we are now trying to base language design >> around the layout of a US English keyboard. >> >> “\” on my keyboard (British Macbook Pro Retina) is right next to the return >> key. It’s also much closer to the parentheses characters than $ is and (if >> you assume we are going to replace parentheses with braces as was suggested >> upthread) right next to the brace keys. >> >> Anyway, your heat map evidence actually negates the argument. If it was a >> frequently used key, it would have a hot spot of its own. It’s not (I tried >> it on some random samples of my own code), so that implies it is not a key >> that is used very often, which further implies it *should* be a little out >> of the way. >> >> *The* escape character for strings is “\”. Please let’s not introduce a >> second one. >> >> >>> On 22 Jun 2016, at 00:08, Brandon Knope via swift-evolution >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Actually… we can go pretty scientific on this sort of thing and heat map >>> keyboard usage to get a better picture of how “usable” this is. >>> >>> I pasted a file that contains seven \’s in it and heat mapped it at >>> https://www.patrick-wied.at/projects/heatmap-keyboard/ >>> >>> Even *with* several \’s throughout my source file the majority of my key >>> presses take place much closer to the $ key than the \ key. >>> >>> I think we can all argue about what is clearer or not, but I think for the >>> majority of us, the \ key is quite inconvenient compared to the keys around >>> where we type the most. >>> >>> I also ran several of iOS 10’s sample code through the heat map and >>> continue to get pretty similar results: the \ is much further from the >>> hottest part of the keyboard than the ones closer to where your hand >>> usually rests. >>> >>> Maybe this is flawed, but I think it is hard to argue that the \ is easy to >>> type when there are far more usable alternatives. >>> >>> Brandon >>> >>> >>> >>>> On Jun 21, 2016, at 6:10 PM, Daniel Resnick via swift-evolution >>>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> I also disagree for the same reasons that Gwynne and Brent mentioned: I >>>> find '\(...)' easy to read, fine to type, and consistent with other string >>>> escaping syntax. >>>> >>>> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 3:55 PM, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution >>>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> I find that typing \(var) is very disruptive to my typing flow. The more >>>>> I code in Swift, the more I like it, but every time I'm coding and then >>>>> have to hiccup while typing \ then ( causes me to be annoyed. I know, >>>>> it's minor, but it isn't a key combination that flows quickly. >>>>> >>>>> I would much rather have $() or perhaps ${} (like Groovy lang) or perhaps >>>>> @() to go along with other uses of @ throughout the language. >>>> >>>> Even though I'm used to Perl's and Ruby's interpolation syntaxes, I >>>> immediately liked `\(…)`. It's parsimonious: Rather than taking a third >>>> character (besides \ and ") to mean something special in a string literal, >>>> it reuses one of the existing ones. There's no need to escape a character >>>> you wouldn't otherwise have to touch, or to think of another character as >>>> "magical" in a string. It fits nicely with the rest of the syntax, with >>>> `\` indicating a special construct and then `()` delimiting an expression, >>>> just as they do elsewhere in the language. It's an elegant solution to a >>>> problem traditionally solved inelegantly. It's very Swifty in that way. >>>> >>>>> A shifted key, like $ or @, followed by another shifted key like (, >>>>> allows for a much faster flow and they are much closer to the home keys >>>>> than \ which is nearly as far from home keys as possible (and awkward). >>>> >>>> >>>> I don't have any trouble typing it personally. If you find yourself >>>> accidentally typing `\9` or `|(`, we could probably offer an error for the >>>> former or warning for the latter with a fix-it. But if you're complaining >>>> that it takes a tiny fraction of a second longer to type than `$(` would, >>>> then honestly, I just can't bring myself to care. Swift optimizes for code >>>> reading. If we wanted to optimize for code typing instead, we'd have a >>>> very different style. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Brent Royal-Gordon >>>> Architechies >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> swift-evolution mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> swift-evolution mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> swift-evolution mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution >> > _______________________________________________ swift-evolution mailing list [email protected] https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
