Swift wants a greater language reference – Ole Begemann

In August 2020, I posted a rant on the Swift boards in regards to the poor state of Swift documentation. Nothing got here of it, however I need to reiterate one level I made then: the Swift venture sorely wants a searchable, linkable language reference.

To be truthful, Swift does have a language reference: the eponymous part in The Swift Programming Language (TSPL) comprises many of the info I’d anticipate from such a useful resource. However that part isn’t nicely structured to function an precise reference:

TSPL is just not searchable

The TSPL web site doesn’t have a search discipline. Even when it had one, I think about it could be a full-text search over your complete web site, as is widespread (and applicable) for a guide. A language reference wants a distinct search engine:

• Trying to find key phrases (if, case, the place) should reliably discover the documentation for the key phrase as the highest outcome. I don’t need to see the lots of of pages that include the phrase “if” of their physique textual content.

• I’d love to have the ability to seek for punctuation. Think about in the event you may seek for a logo comparable to # and it could present you a listing of all syntax parts that use this image. ^{This might be very informative and a good way to discover the language, not only for inexperienced persons — particularly with good IDE integration (see under). Swift is such an enormous and sophisticated language that most individuals received’t know each language characteristic.}

A language reference wants a search engine that is aware of to deal with key phrases and punctuation.

TSPL is just not linkable

Pages in TSPL are usually lengthy, with many separate gadgets crammed right into a single web page. For instance, all compiler attributes are documented on a single web page.

Sharing a hyperlink to a particular attribute, comparable to @resultBuilder, is tough if you understand your means round HTML and just about unattainable in the event you don’t (to not point out the unhealthy URL).

As a reader, opening such a hyperlink is disorienting because it drops you in the midst of a really lengthy web page, 95 % of which is irrelevant to you.

The reader expertise is even poorer whenever you arrive from a search engine (as most individuals would as a result of the positioning has no search operate): TSPL is likely one of the prime outcomes for swift resultbuilder on Google, however it drops you on the prime of the superlong web page on Attributes, with no indication the place to search out the data you’re searching for.

Each language assemble, key phrase, attribute, and compiler directive ought to have its personal, linkable web page.

TSPL is structured incorrect

The Language Reference part in TSPL is organized as if it was written for parser or compiler builders. It makes use of the language’s grammar as a place to begin and branches out into expressions, statements, declarations, and so forth.

For instance:

I don’t learn about you, however as a person of the language, that’s not how I take into consideration Swift or how I seek for documentation.

Along with a great search engine, a language reference wants an alphabetical index of each key phrase or different syntax ingredient, with hyperlinks to the respective element web page.

IDE integration

I used to be cautious to make this a criticism in regards to the documentation for Swift and never in regards to the (equally poor) state of Apple’s developer documentation. Swift is just not restricted to app improvement for Apple gadgets, and I imagine it’s important for Swift to place itself as a standalone venture if it needs to be perceived as a viable general-purpose language.

It’s good that TSPL is hosted on swift.org and never developer.apple.com, and that’s additionally the place this new language reference I’m envisioning ought to dwell. (I additionally assume it’s incorrect to host the Swift API documentation on developer.apple.com.)

However as soon as now we have this language reference, Apple ought to in fact combine it into Xcode for offline search and context-sensitive assist. Think about in the event you may Choice-click not solely identifiers however any token in a supply file to see its documentation.

A number of examples:

• Clicking on if case let would clarify the sample matching syntax.
• Clicking on in would explains the assorted closure expression syntax variants.
• Clicking on #fileID would present you an instance of the ensuing string and evaluate it to #file and filePath.
• Clicking on @propertyWrapper would clarify what a property wrapper is and how one can implement one.
• Clicking on @dynamicMemberLookup would clarify its objective and what you must do to implement it.
• Clicking on < in a generic declaration would clarify what generic parameters are and the way they’re used.
• Clicking on ? would present all language parts that use a query mark (shorthand for Optionals, optionally available chaining, Elective sample matching, strive?).
• Clicking on /// would listing the magic phrases Xcode understands in doc feedback.

You get the thought. This might be such an enormous assist, not just for inexperienced persons.

To summarize, that is the unhappy state of looking for language options in Xcode’s documentation viewer:

And this mockup reveals the way it might be: