JMU-CS / JMU-CS/less-java

Remove void "type"; convert statements to expressions

Abierto
#56 2 comentarios 0 reacciones 0 asignados Ver en GitHub
proposal
Lenguaje dominante
Java
Estrellas
6
Forks
7
Métricas de merge de PR
Sin PR fusionados en 30 d

Descripción

Perhaps we should remove the use of void as a return type. Objects that perform an operation that modify themselves and don't necessarily have something to return can return themselves (similar to the [builder pattern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Builder_pattern)).

Example:
```
aList = [].add(1).add(2).add(3)
print(aList) // [1, 2, 3]
```

Procedures that aren't related to a class can always return a boolean indicating success or failure. We can even make the lack of a return be considered a success.

Example:

```
procedure1() {
a = 10
b = 10
c = a + b
print(c)
}

procedure1() // prints: '20', returns true

procedure2() {
number = readInt()

// This if "statement" would also technically be an expression that returns a boolean in this proposal
if (number % 2 != 0) {
// This can also be an expression maybe?
return false
}
}

procedure2() // < 1 returns false; < 2 returns true
```

It might encourage chaining procedures together like so:
```
checkCondition1(args) && checkCondition2(args) && checkCondition3(args) && doGuardedProcedure(args)
```

This is possible in the current state of LJ, but it might be further encouraged if we default return types to boolean (is this something we want to encourage?).

Presumably function definitions and class definitions would now also be expressions if we were strict about "no statements" which would mean LJ has first-class functions (and potentially lambdas).

```
function1 = main() { println("Hello, world!" }

function1() // "Hello, world!"
main() // "Hello, world!

function2 = (arg1, arg2) { printf("%s, %s", arg1, arg2) }
function2("cats", "dogs") // "cats, dogs"

function3(otherFunction, arg1, arg2) {
return otherFunction(arg1, arg2)
}

function3(function2, "cats", "dogs") // "cats, dogs"

class1 = Dog { ...class stuff... }
dog1 = class1() // Returns a new Dog instance
dog2 = Dog() // Returns a new Dog instance

class2 = { ...class stuff... } // LJ uses '{ }' for sets, so there needs to be some disambiguation here
object1 = class2()

someFactoryFunction(someClass, args) {
return someClass(args)
}

someFactoryFunction(class1, args) // Returns a new Dog instance
```

Treating everything like an expression feels more clear. It might seem odd to beginners that some funny words "return" stuff while other funny words "do" stuff. Some beginners have trouble figuring out when to use `print()` and when to use a `return` for example.

Guía de contribución

No hay ninguna guía de contribución indexada para este repositorio

Evaluación

Este issue todavía no se ha evaluado.

Recibe los nuevos issues en tu correo

Un resumen breve de issues de GitHub para principiantes.