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square signatures
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From:
Zefram
Date:
November 13, 2017 20:07
Subject:
square signatures
Message ID:
20171113200700.GV4913@fysh.org
There is a change we could make to signature syntax, within the scope of
the present experimental feature, which would have some value and which
I think we should consider making. The change I propose is firstly that
signatures should be delimited by square brackets instead of parentheses,
and secondly that enabling signature syntax should not disable the short
prototype syntax. Under this arrangement we would see things like:
use feature "signatures";
sub add [$x, $y] { $x + $y } # signature
sub my_rand (;$) { rand($_[0] || 5) } # prototype
sub mul ($$) [$x, $y] { $x * $y } # prototype and signature
Why do this? Because a perennial problem around signatures has been
confusion between signatures and prototypes. A lot of the proposals for
signatures suffered from treating them as a funny kind of prototype.
If implementors couldn't keep them straight, we can't expect users to
be clear about them. The confusion largely arises from them having
some syntactic similarity, so much that they actually clash and so we
needed to disable one syntax when the other is enabled. Brackets in
place of parens make signatures very visually distinct from prototypes,
which would probably be a big help in keeping them mentally distinct.
A side benefit is that signature syntax would no longer clash with short
prototype syntax, so we would have no need to disable the latter.
We didn't consider this at the time of the original development of
signatures because no one thought of it. The quick consensus we had on
the basic features was built on an an assumption that the delimiters would
be parens, based on nothing more than that being the usual arrangement
in other languages. The consensus also incorporated an unambiguous and
technically simple way to distinguish the syntaxes. It wasn't until
confusion became evident after implementation that I started thinking
"wish we'd made them more syntactically distinct, delimited them with
square brackets or something". Since then my line of thought has
gradually solidified to the position that I think there's real benefit
in obvious non-clashing syntax, and that brackets are probably the best
way to do it.
If brackets are too weird, there are other options for distinguishing
them such as sticking a "+" before the opening paren. The downside is
that with parens still being the main delimiters the degree of visual
distinction is much lower.
In summary, pros:
* can immediately see whether you're looking at a prototype or a
signature, not having to consider pragmata
* prototype and signature more mentally distinct
* nicer syntax for prototypes when signatures are enabled
* enabling signature syntax (in one file, or as a "use 5.030" bundle)
doesn't break the old prototype syntax in existing code
* documentation that gives examples using prototypes doesn't need any
complexification
Cons:
* looks a bit weird
* all existing signature-using code (which either emits or explicitly
muffles a "signatures are experimental" warning) needs to change
Let the opinions flow.
-zefram
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square signatures
by Zefram