More proposed syntax changes

[Dhanji R. Prasanna]

I want to change static calls into Java to be a lot simpler:

`java.lang.System`.currentTimeMillis()

to:

require `java.lang.System`

System.currentTimeMillis()

or, with a special static scoping operator:

require `java.lang.System`

System::currentTimeMillis()

So it's clear that a Java static method is being called.

[Dave Newton]

My 0.02USD; I tend towards the `::` operator as per JRuby; IMO it reduces ambiguity.

Related, but perhaps less palatable, I like being able to alias imports, although it does mean there's another mental step when figuring out what's being called unless you're paying attention. I.e., "require `java.lang.System` as `Sys`" or something. It's more useful for long, domain-specific imports, obviously, especially in scripts.

Definitely nice to skip the (what I consider) visually-awkward backticks, though.

Dave

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[Dhanji R. Prasanna]

Hmm, yea I tend to agree about the :: (which is actually C++'s static scoping operator really). We can alias Loop imports already using the 'as' clause--but I'm not convinced aliasing Java imports is a good thing--someone reading the code for the first time may not have any idea what's going on?

Maybe it's not an issue as they can look at the require block. Yea definitely want to get rid of the backticks as much as possible, it introduces complexity into the parser though, that's why I had them originally.

[Dave Newton]

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Dhanji R. Prasanna wrote:

Maybe it's not an issue as they can look at the require block. Yea definitely want to get rid of the backticks as much as possible, it introduces complexity into the parser though, that's why I had them originally.

I haven't found it to be a huge issue in real life, and in code where it might be, I just don't use it.

In JRuby I use something similar (including a Java package in a module) a lot to reduce noise in scripts or when interacting with systems via a REPL. It's one of those things that can lead to horrific abuse, but is also pretty nice when used in small doses.

Dave

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[Dhanji R. Prasanna]

These changes are now live in trunk (not yet in release build):

require java.lang.System

main ->

  System::println('hello')

The parser will support aliases for java types but this doesn't actually work yet. 

The old scheme with backticks continues to work and is useful for edge cases like class names beginning with a lower case (the Loop grammar only recognizes types in CamelCase). 

You can also use backticks if you want to use a FQN inline.

Dhanji.