Swap the roles of `in` and `of`

[satyr]

I find it pretty confusing that of compiles to in and in arraywise operations.
It'd be easier for beginners if we kept the meaning of in from JS and then introduced of for a cool addition.

According to Jeremy it's all about readability, but for me neither reads much better than another:

• Current
  • for key of object
    • for key, value of object
  • for item in array
    • for item, index in array
• Proposed
  • for key in object
    • for key, value in object
  • for item of array
    • for item, index of array

Do you feel one much more readable than another?

[jacquescrocker]

i do think in should be used for array. of seems fine to me for hashes

-1

[michaelficarra]

I've had this gripe since I first came across coffeescript, but I thought I was alone and/or nitpicking. +1 for consistency with JS. I even think the proposed syntax reads slightly better.

edit: I'd like to note that, since posting this comment almost a year ago, my opinion on this matter has reversed, as can be seen in more recent issues proposing similar changes.

[timmfin]

-1

Most of the dynamic languages I'm used to (ruby, python, groovy, etc) use a for ... in for arrays. I think that js is the exception here, and of and in should stay the same.

[satyr]

use a for ... in for arrays

Also for hashes.

Ruby:

for k, v in {a:1, b:2}; p [k, v] end

Python:

for k, v in {'a':1, 'b':2}.items(): print k, v

Groovy:

for(e in [a:1, b:2]) println([e.key, e.value])

It's just that hash (object) in JS is more fundamental data structure than array.

[weepy]

I think its best to follow javascripts convention where possible. That is certaintly what I am doing with Kaffeine (though this is because it implements progressive enhancement of Javascript syntax, it has to). But I think CS should do the same.

[stephank]

I've personally never used in in JS for object attribute iteration, but have used it for iterating arrays. So even coming from JS, the current syntax seems natural to me.

That, and the consistency with other languages, makes me say -1.

[StanAngeloff]

of object (belongs to) and in array (in list) make sense. -1

[hen-x]

-1 from me. As array items in JS are implemented as normal object properties, the fine distinction between them is always going to be a potential point of confusion, so it would be hard to devise an iteration syntax that is completely unambiguous. However, since the semantic difference is a matter of object properties versus array contents, I think of and in make fine sense as they are.

[jashkenas]

Sounds like nearly unanimous consensus, then. To reiterate, the original reason for the different terminology is just regular English: You can say "item in list", and "property of object" -- but "item of list" and "property in object" both sound strange-ish.

Closing the ticket.

[satyr]

http://wiki.ecmascript.org/doku.php?id=harmony:iterators