Oops, I just noticed (thanks Jen) that I replied to an off-topic comment. Sorry, Donald Pinckney :(
Back on topic! I love the playground. You should look into the XCPlayground framework to display graphics in the timeline instead of in-line, I think it would be nicer. I see that you used pdf files for the formulas, and that didn’t render well on a dark background. It would be great if the markup language for playground supported mathematical notation. It is almost a necessity for using it in an educational settings. Loïc > On Jan 6, 2016, at 6:58 PM, Loïc Lecrenier via swift-users > <swift-users@swift.org> wrote: > > Hi Don, > > I don’t understand these complaints. > > The String class is complicated, but it is not a disaster, it just needs more > convenience methods. See: > https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2015-11-06-why-is-swifts-string-api-so-hard.html > for an explanation of the String API. > > Optionals is an essential feature for writing safe code. I don’t see how it > presents a giant spider web of interconnectedness. Plenty of languages have > optionals (Rust, Haskell) and it has brought nothing but advantages. > > Swift does not have primitives, but I consider that a plus: every type has > access to the same features. It makes the language more consistent and more > flexible. Also note that there is no performance cost to the way Swift > represents Int. They are just as efficient as C’s int. > I also don’t understand what you mean by “unwrapping is required, sometimes > explicit, sometimes implicit”. > > I won’t comment on non-checked exceptions. But I’m not convinced this is a > very valuable feature. > > Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean by “package”, but isn't the Swift > Package Manager a good solution for packages? > Namespaces also exist, although it is quite rudimentary. There is a proposal > draft for “beefing up” import that tries to improve that. > > Honestly, it seems like you haven’t given Swift a fair shot, and wanted to > see a Java/C# clone instead. > It is also evolving very quickly, so I wouldn’t lose hope :-) > > Regards, > > Loïc > >> On Jan 6, 2016, at 6:34 PM, Don Wills via swift-users >> <swift-users@swift.org> wrote: >> >> [soapbox] >> >> Coming from the perspective of business applications market (Java and C#), I >> see major problems in moving to Swift. It's simple too different. The >> String class is a disaster. Optionals present a giant spider web of >> interconnectedness and syntax idiosyncrasy that does not provide any real >> advantage compared with Java/C#. The fact that Ints, etc. are not really >> primitives (unwrapping is required, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit) >> is a major dislocation for those coming from all C-syntax-based languages. >> The lack of non-checked exceptions (that is exceptions not declared with a >> throws clause on the func def) is problem. The lack of packages and/or >> namespaces is another giant gaping hole. >> >> I had high hopes when I first looked into Swift. Those hopes have been >> dashed, and I don't see anything in my limited view of the plans for Swift >> 3.0 that addresses any of these concerns or several others that I did not >> mention. >> >> [/soapbox] >> >> Don Wills >> >> >>> On Jan 6, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Dru Satori via swift-users >>> <swift-users@swift.org> wrote: >>> >>> There is a huge potential here. The weakness, today at least, is that with >>> Swift 2.0, there remain some difficulties in terms of being dependent upon >>> reaching out to Objective C to accomplish some tasks. Looking at what is >>> coming with Swift 3.0, and the work done on the Linux port, I think there >>> is a clear roadmap that makes many of these issues go away, but right now, >>> today, I think it is a tough sell into the edu market. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On 1/6/16, 1:42 AM, "swift-users-boun...@swift.org on behalf of Donald >>> Pinckney via swift-users" <swift-users-boun...@swift.org on behalf of >>> swift-users@swift.org> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> Personally, I love Swift, and I am curious to see if it will be used in >>>> educational settings, not necessarily even CS education. As something of >>>> an experiment to see how Swift could currently look in education, I coded >>>> a Swift playground (sorry, very Mac specific right now!) that is a >>>> rewriting of a lab activity we did in my 3rd quarter of physics. For >>>> those who are interested in educational aspects of Swift, and have a Mac >>>> to run this code, feel free to check out my attached playground, and give >>>> any sort of feedback, with respect to either the code or more >>>> philosophically where you think Swift could go with education. >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Donald Pinckney >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> swift-users mailing list >>> swift-users@swift.org >>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-users >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> swift-users mailing list >> swift-users@swift.org >> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-users > > _______________________________________________ > swift-users mailing list > swift-users@swift.org > https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-users _______________________________________________ swift-users mailing list swift-users@swift.org https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-users
