Hi Blackdrag,
Thank you for your response - it clarifies the issue nicely. I like your idea
of using ;{...} and will note that as a safe approach to instance initialiser
blocks.
Cheers,
Duncan
> On 11 Jul 2015, at 16:25, Jochen Theodorou <blackd...@gmx.org> wrote:
>
> Am 11.07.2015 07:48, schrieb Duncan Dickinson:
> [...]
>> Should this be a Jira ticket (I couldn't see one), if only to document
>> it? It's something I noticed rather than something that upsets me.
>
> the problem is the newline character, that in some cases is supposed to end
> the statement and in other cases is supposed to be swallowed. The compiler
> can't always do the right thing here and instance initializers suffer from
> that.
>
>> *Example 1: Works.*
>> I declare two properties with no initial assignment. Assignment
>> performed in initializer block.
>>
>> class Person1 {
>> def id
>> def name
>>
>> {
>> id = 1
>> name = 'Anonymous'
>> }
>> }
>>
>> Person1 p1 = new Person1()
>> println p1.dump()
> [...]
>> *Example 3: Causes **exception* groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No
>> signature of method: Person3.Anonymous3() is applicable for argument
>> types: (Person3$_closure1)
>>
>> class Person3 {
>> def id
>> def name = 'Anonymous3'
>>
>> {
>> id = 3
>> }
>> }
>>
>> Person3 p3 = new Person3()
>> p3.dump()
>
> imagine that foo {bar} is a method call. But the same goes for 'foo' {bar}.
> Which means that def name = 'Anonymous3' {id=3} is also seen as method call
> for the right side.
>
>> *Example 4: Works*
>> This is the same as Example 3 except I place a semicolon to explicitly
>> terminate the statement
>
> yes, then it works, because then the compiler knows that this spacing is
> nothing that connects that statement and the one before.
>
>> *Example 5: Works*
>> Similar to Example 3 - I just place another statement after the
>> assignment and the initializer block isn't mistaken for a closure
>>
>> class Person5 {
>> def id
>> def name = 'Anonymous5'
>> def email
>>
>> {
>> id = 5
>> }
>> }
>>
>> Person5 p5 = new Person5()
>> p5.dump()
>
> that's basically the same as the first two examples. Because of "def" there
> is no danger of accidentally seeing you code part as method call, thus there
> is no problem. At this place a method call could only ever happen as part of
> an assignment anyway.
>
> My suggestion would be based on your example 4... write the initializer block
> like this: ;{....} I mean with a starting semicolon. Then you never ever
> should have that problem again.
>
> As for a JIRA for this... I doubt we can ever solve this without doing
> language changes. It is more a language limitation, than a bug
>
> bye blackdrag
>
> --
> Jochen "blackdrag" Theodorou
> blog: http://blackdragsview.blogspot.com/
>
