Replace the current vector constructor vector.create with a less verbose, more ergonomic vector.
While the current vector constructor vector.create is consistent with other functions in the vector library, it is quite verbose. A shorter version would improve the readability and writability of code.
Especially scripts that contain a lot of data such as positions, directions, matrices or colors could be significantly less verbose with a shorter syntax.
The __call metamethod in the vector library table will be set to the already existing vector constructor. Thus calls to vector will create a new vector value. Any existing code that uses vector.create can swap in vector with identical behavior.
The new constructor vector shall be backed with a built-in fastcall so that vector and vector.create will have identical performance characteristics. As a result vectors will also be added to the constant table by the compiler when the new shorter version of vector is used.
The old constructor vector.create will be deprecated and eventually removed in favor of the new shorter version. The removal of vector.create simplifies the internal implementation as fastpaths for two constructors do not need to be supported.
The biggest drawback is the deprecation and removal of vector.create which requires end users to modify their code. During the transition time two different constructors would exist which could be slightly confusing.
The performance of constructing vectors could be negatively affected in some cases where the built-in fastcall is not available or when the fastcall is aborted. For example, when the constructor arguments are strings and the string to number auto-coersion path is taken. It is assumed that the performance in these corner cases is not important.
Alternatively a new syntax for creating vectors could be added. For example, |x y z| or <x y z>. While this would reduce the verbosity even further, it would be a bigger change. One of the original design goals of Lua is simplicity and favoring words over symbols, so vector(x, y, z) is more aligned with that.
Alternatively we could keep the old constructor and add the new shorter version as an alias. To the end user it could be confusing to have two different functions for doing the same thing. This would also not be aligned with the Lua philosophy of keeping things simple.
If this feature is not implemented, we would not get the benefits discussed above. Additionally some embedders with an existing shorter constructor could shy away from the built-in library, which would work against the goals of having a unified, official vector library.