Hi everyone,
There's consensus that `@` (imported from Haskell) is a bad binding
operator for patterns, because it leads to the confusing-looking `@@`
in, for example:
struct Foo {
field: int
}
...
match foo {
foo@@Foo { field: x } => ...
}
However, there is not consensus as to what to change it to. Suggestions
are `=` and `as`.
The problem with `=` is that, if implemented naively, it makes our
grammar ambiguous:
let x = y = 3; // is x the result of evaluating `y = 3` (i.e. unit)
// or are x and y bound to 3?
The easiest way to fix this problem is to forbid `=` in irrefutable
patterns, such as those introduced by `let`. However, this bifurcates
the pattern grammar into the irrefutable-pattern grammar and the
refutable-pattern grammar, with some conceptually-ugly overlap.
The alternative is `as`, like OCaml. However, this conflicts with `as`
in the expression grammar. A subset of the expression grammar is part of
the pattern grammar in order to permit matching against constants.
Removing `as` expressions from the subset of expression productions
permitted in patterns would mean that this would no longer do what you
expect:
match 22.0f32 / 7.0f32 {
math::PI as f32 => println("Good grief!"),
_ => {}
}
So both `=` and `as` have drawbacks.
I don't really have any preference at all; I just need to know what to
implement. Opinions?
Patrick
_______________________________________________
Rust-dev mailing list
[email protected]
https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/rust-dev
