On 2011-01-20 19:18, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:07:58 -0500, Jacob Carlborg <d...@me.com> wrote:
On 2011-01-20 15:02, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:47:28 -0500, Justin Johansson <j...@nospam.com>
wrote:
Not long ago the Java Language people introduced the idea of
annotations together with an annotation processing tool (apt).
Now perhaps the idea of source code annotations is not actually a Java
invention per se, however for someone learning D is there any
equivalent idiom [of Java annotations] in the D language?
Haven't used Java since they added annotations, but I think they are
like C# attributes?
In any case, D has an annotation syntax like:
@property
But I think at the moment, annotations have no custom ability. Only
compiler-defined annotations are allowed. This may change in the future,
but probably not short-term. FWIW, I think we need a much richer
runtime-reflection capability before we can use custom annotations to
any great effect.
-Steve
I would rather formulate it like: currently D has a syntax for
keywords that are similar to Java annotations.
I don't think it's the same thing. Keywords are not allowed to be used
anywhere else, even for things that would parse properly were they not
keywords. They are anchors for the parser to determine where it is. In
contrast, a compiler-defined annotation is parsed just the same as a
custom one, it's just that the meaning is predefined.
For example, you can legally do:
int property;
without error, but this won't even get past the parsing stage:
int struct;
-Steve
I assume you meant "int @property;"?
--
/Jacob Carlborg
