The Recursive Dictionary Lookup

 ... no shit, here I am... taking a break from the redundantly recursive link sifting that is iOS development in the 21st Century.  I can not count the stack pushes I've had since about 11 AM and it's only 6:37 PM still time for a beer and a pondering session...

A great story allways starts... no shit, there we were...

So at my Day Job <euphemism for what I get PAID to do... but I'm unemployeed> I'm writing a little easy

App for a colleague - it's a learning chance for me... and it might provide some value.  I'm busily rewiring my brain (there is some question to its inherent plasticity) at my age - so ONE valuable technique is to get drunk enough not to care so damn much and bang out some crap one night - then in the morning come back and fix the hell out of it.  There may be other valuable techniques...

Well, last night I decided that the easy array data structure was just going to have to go... that was simple at first and went a long way - but I'd solve some of my current problems if I upgraded to a more ... let's say modern data structure.  So I chose a Dictionary (Swift language)... and started ripping & tearing...

This morning I decided maybe I should look up the documentation on that Dictionary... that I may be thinking of recreating some of its built-in methods.  Ya know, like random() and sort().  And it would be way cool if I could keep using the array subscript - since the retrieved order doesn't matter in most of the cases...

oh ... sorry gota take the D.O.G. for a walk - push that stack for me will-ya?

POP! - alright, where was this rant...  getting to the good part... I hope...

So the dictionary class has a method call subscript that takes a Key & returns a Value(optional) - that's what that question-mark after Value means... it's an optional type thingy.  Ok looking at the hightlighted method... subscript takes a Key and a ... what the MUCK and function named default that returns a Value. And then the whole method returns a Value.  Why would I call the method with a function that returns the value - if I wanted the value...  OK - I'm reading this WRONG... but what does it mean.

Let's go read up on Dictionaries at my go to resource HackingWithSwift.com by Paul Hudson.  All-crap... the intertube is broken... maybe his site is down... maybe my tube is out... use my phone... yeah that's working, I'll go take a break and read up on Paul's site - he's better at explaining than all of Apple.

[ yes, I included the banner ad on purpose... Paul has been very helpful. ]

He's got a few pages about Dictionary... only while reading it the 20th time does it occur to me... that line right there - that ONE!  "var adelScore = scores["Adele Adkins", default: 0]" It has the same form as the Apple Doc... that's what the documentation is trying to tell me... that I can pass in a default value that the method... what method... there is no SUBSCRIPT method - it's the Square Brack notation ... the one Fortran 77 invented... WTF Apple?!?  If you mean [] couldn't you toss in some notation that (in parenthetical brackets of the [square] kind we mean...) subscript. Or maybe a footnote - or what do you call a footnote that's on the same page as the notation...

So I've spent the better part of the day trying to learn how to read the Apple Documentation.  I figure that Apple is using some formal notation that I just don't understand... that IF I read up on the notation language they are using ... I will catch onto there ways.  So I go GOOGLING the nature of Apple documentation and the symbolizm they use...  I find out that they are using a MARKUP, or markdown, mark-across, marking-marky-mark (some level of Marxism) [ something Karl somebody dreamed up]; to write the documentaitiation in side the code... kinda like ol' James Gosling (Java) might have dreamed up.

But I've yet to find what sort of Symbolism Apple is using.  They have some funky stuff going on...

Wasn't it Cobal that had the IN/OUT types... WTF!  How does a normal little old programmer interpret that crap... I mean come-on APPLE!  You can do better than this!  Spend some money on a Human to write some docs for us.

What could this syntax mean?

What does that "get" out there mean? Do I use the lower case or upper case of Keys?  Does it get a pair of parenthesis ()s?  Or maybe some braces {}?  Should I use angle brackets diction<>.Keys? Swift has lots of syntactical sugar.  It's not naturally sweet!  I need a decoder ring - where did they sell those...

Well it's now 8:02 PM and I've ranted enough - or drank enough beer to be in the "correct" frame of mind to tackle the code and replace my array with a Dictionary and till hell with those damn subscripts.

Hold my Beer!

It's morning now, and I'm revisiting my "productivity" or lack thereof... I realize I've achieved a touch of knowledge of Apple's documentation symbolism.  This may be the learning process - enhanced by sleep (don't scoff - there is science underlying that statement).  I still cannot parse the Dictionary keys line.  But I can parse the subscript expression.  I'm not sure they follow the same basic rules... for example in the subscript line - "default()" becomes a literal "default:" in the code.  Whereas in randomElement description there are explicit "key:" and "value:" literals.  I'm still looking for a rule book.