Example:
data class T(val flag: Boolean) {
constructor(n: Int) : this(run {
// Some computation here...
<Boolean result>
})
}
In this example, the custom constructor needs to run some computation in order to determine which value to pass to the primary constructor, but the compiler does not accept the run, citing Cannot access 'run' before superclass constructor has been called, which, if I understand correctly, means instead of interpreting it as the non-extension run (the variant with no object reference in https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/scope-functions.html#function-selection), it construes it as a call to this.run (the variant with an object reference in the above table) - which is invalid as the object has not completely instantiated yet.
What can I do in order to let the compiler know I mean the run function which is not an extension method and doesn't take a scope?
Clarification: I am interested in an answer to the question as asked, not in a workaround.
I can think of several workarounds - ways to rewrite this code in a way that works as intended without calling run: extracting the code to a function; rewriting it as a (possibly highly nested) let expression; removing the run and invoking the lambda (with () after it) instead (funnily enough, IntelliJ IDEA tags that as Redundant lambda creation and suggests to Inline the body, which reinstates the non-compiling run). But the question is not how to rewrite this without using run - it's how to make run work in this context.
A good answer should do one of the following things:
Explain how to instruct the compiler to call a function rather than an extension method when a name is overloaded, in general; or
Explain how to do that specifically for run; or
Explain that (and ideally also why) it is not possible to do (ideally with supporting references); or
Explain what I got wrong, in case I got something wrong and the whole question is irrelevant (e.g. if my analysis is incorrect, and the problem is something other than the compiler construing the call to run as this.run).
If someone has a neat workaround not mentioned above they're welcome to post it in a comment - not as an answer.
In case it matters: I'm using multi-platform Kotlin 1.4.20.
Kotlin favors the receiver overload if it is in scope. The solution is to use the fully qualified name of the non-receiver function:
kotlin.run { //...
The specification is explained here.
Another option when the overloads are not in the same package is to use import renaming, but that won't work in this case since both run functions are in the same package.
Related
When would we ever need with in Kotlin if we can already use apply, run, also and let?
Can anyone give me a clear example?
In most situations, a with call can be transformed to a run like this:
with(foo) {
// some code ...
}
// is the same as:
foo.run {
// the same code ...
}
run and with will both return the lambda result, and will use foo as the lambda receiver.
However, I can think of one case where this wouldn't work - when foo declares its own run method that takes a lambda, e.g.
// having something like this isn't too uncommon, right?
fun run(x: () -> Unit) {}
The lambda type doesn't have to be exactly the same as the scope function run. Any function type should work. Then overload resolution wouldn't resolve to the built-in run.
You can force the resolution by doing some casts, but using with in this case is much better. Don't you agree?
I don’t think there’s any better example than with(context). Maybe it’s not clear if English isn’t one of your primary languages, but it semantically is translated into English much clearer than context.run when the object is being used to produce a result but isn’t the primary actor, so it makes code a little easier to read.
This of course raises the question of why run exists. Well, it semantically makes more sense in English when the object is the thing doing the action. In English, the context of an action is what you’re doing something with. But if the object is what is directly producing the result, then it is running the action.
Also, you can’t do ?.with.
I want to build a class in Raku. Here's what I have so far:
unit class Vimwiki::File;
has Str:D $.path is required where *.IO.e;
method size {
return $.file.IO.s;
}
I'd like to get rid of the size method by simply making my class inherit the methods from IO::Path but I'm at a bit of a loss for how to accomplish this. Trying is IO::Path throws errors when I try to create a new object:
$vwf = Vimwiki::File.new(path => 't/test_file.md');
Must specify a non-empty string as a path
in block <unit> at t/01-basic.rakutest line 24
Must specify a non-empty string as a path
I always try a person's code when looking at someone's SO. Yours didn't work. (No declaration of $vwf.) That instantly alerts me that someone hasn't applied Minimal Reproducible Example principles.
So I did and less than 60 seconds later:
IO::Path.new
Yields the same error.
Why?
The doc for IO::Path.new shows its signature:
multi method new(Str:D $path, ...
So, IO::Path's new method expects a positional argument that's a Str. You (and my MRE) haven't passed a positional argument that's a Str. Thus the error message.
Of course, you've declared your own attribute $path, and have passed a named argument to set it, and that's unfortunately confused you because of the coincidence with the name path, but that's the fun of programming.
What next, take #1
Having a path attribute that duplicates IO::Path's strikes me as likely to lead to unnecessary complexity and/or bugs. So I think I'd nix that.
If all you're trying to do is wrap an additional check around the filename, then you could just write:
unit class Vimwiki::File is IO::Path;
method new ($path, |) { $path.IO.e ?? (callsame) !! die 'nope' }
callsame redispatches the ongoing routine call (the new method call), with the exact same arguments, to the next best fitting candidate(s) that would have been chosen if your new one containing the callsame hadn't been called. In this case, the next candidate(s) will be the existing new method(s) of IO::Path.
That seems fine to get started. Then you can add other attributes and methods as you see fit...
What next, take #2
...except for the IO::Path bug you filed, which means you can't initialize attributes in the normal way because IO::Path breaks the standard object construction protocol! :(
Liz shows one way to workaround this bug.
In an earlier version of this answer, I had not only showed but recommended another approach, namely delegation via handles instead of ordinary inheritance. I have since concluded that that was over-complicating things, and so removed it from this answer. And then I read your issue!
So I guess the delegation approach might still be appropriate as a workaround for a bug. So if later readers want to see it in action, follow #sdondley's link to their code. But I'm leaving it out of this (hopefully final! famous last words...) version of this answer in the hope that by the time you (later reader) read this, you just need to do something really simple like take #1.
I need to test a feature that includes this line:
if $translate-nl && $*DISTRO.is-win
I have tried to reassign a value to $*DISTRO,
$*DISTRO='Windows 10';
but it says:
Cannot modify an immutable Distro (debian (9.stretch))
$*DISTRO is a dynamic variable, and it makes sense that it's not modified. That said, is there any other way that code can be tested (other than going to Windows, of course)
my $*DISTRO = ...
Hopefully modifying the original is unnecessary. It's generally unreasonable action-at-a-distance -- almost certainly so if someone has arranged for it to be an immutable value. This is the reason why global variables got such a bad reputation.
To elaborate on raiph's answer: the * in $*DISTRO marks it as a dynamic variable. You can re-declare it any scope, and code called from there will see the redeclared value:
{
my $*DISTRO = ...;
# coded called from here sees the redeclared value
}
# code called from here sees the original value
Now, the question remains, what do you put in place of these pesky ...?
In the simplest case, a mock that just has whatever the code under test needs:
{
my class Distro { has $.is-win }
my $*DISTRO = Distro.new( :is-win );
# call your test code here
}
If the code needs more attributes in Distro, just add them to the mock Distro class.
If the code needs a "real* Distro object, for some reason, you can instantiate the built-in one. The constructor .new isn't really documented, but the source code makes it pretty obvious what arguments it expects.
OK, I got the answer relatively fast. $*DISTRO is actually a read-only alias of PROCESS::<$DISTRO>
So we only need to do:
my $*DISTRO = Distro.new(:is-win,:release<11>,:path-sep('|||'),:auth<unknown>,:name<mswin32>,:desc<Test>,:version<v11>);
say $*DISTRO.is-win; #OUTPUT: «True»
The title pretty much sums it up, but here's the long version anyway.
After posting a small snippet of perl code, I was told to avoid indirect object notation, "as it has several side effects". The comment referenced this particular line:
my $some_object = new Some::Module(FIELD => 'value');
As this is how I've always done it, in an effort to get with the times I therefore ask:
What's so bad about it? (specifically)
What are the potential (presumably negative) side effects?
How should that line be rewritten?
I was about to ask the commenter, but to me this is worthy of its own post.
The main problem is that it's ambiguous. Does
my $some_object = new Some::Module(FIELD => 'value');
mean to call the new method in the Some::Module package, or does it mean to call the new function in the current package with the result of calling the Module function in the Some package with the given parameters?
i.e, it could be parsed as:
# method call
my $some_object = Some::Module->new(FIELD => 'value');
# or function call
my $some_object = new(Some::Module(FIELD => 'value'));
The alternative is to use the explicit method call notation Some::Module->new(...).
Normally, the parser guesses correctly, but the best practice is to avoid the ambiguity.
What's so bad about it?
The problems with Indirect Method Notation are avoidable, but it's far easier to tell people to avoid Indirect Method Notation.
The main problem it's very easy to call the wrong function by accident. Take the following code, for example:
package Widget;
sub new { ... }
sub foo { ... }
sub bar { ... }
sub method {
...;
my $o = new SubWidget;
...;
}
1;
In that code, new SubWidget is expected to mean
SubWidget->new()
Instead, it actually means
new("SubWidget")
That said, using strict will catch most of these instances of this error. Were use strict; to be added to the above snippet, the following error would be produced:
Bareword "SubWidget" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at Widget.pm line 11.
That said, there are cases where using strict would not catch the error. They primarily involve the use of parens around the arguments of the method call (e.g. new SubWidget($x)).
So that means
Using Indirect Object Notation without parens can result in odd error messages.
Using Indirect Object Notation with parens can result in the wrong code being called.
The former is bearable, and the latter is avoidable. But rather than telling people "avoid using parens around the arguments of method calls using Indirect Method Notation", we simply tell people "avoid using Indirect Method Notation". It's just too fragile.
There's another issue. It's not just using Indirect Object Notation that's a problem, it's supporting it in Perl. The existence of the feature causes multiple problems. Primarily,
It causes some syntax errors to result in very odd/misleading error messages because the code appeared to be using ION when it wasn't.
It prevents useful features from being implemented since they clash with valid ION syntax.
On the plus side, using no indirect; helps the first problem.
How should that line be rewritten?
The correct way to write the method call is the following:
my $some_object = Some::Module->new(FIELD => 'value');
That said, even this syntax is ambiguous. It will first check if a function named Some::Module exists. But that's so very unlikely that very few people protect themselves from such problems. If you wanted to protect yourself, you could use the following:
my $some_object = Some::Module::->new(FIELD => 'value');
As to how to avoid it: There's a CPAN module that forbids the notation, acting like a pragma module:
no indirect;
http://metacpan.org/pod/indirect
The commenter just wanted to see Some::Module->new(FIELD => 'value'); as the constructor.
Perl can use indirect object syntax for other bare words that look like they might be methods, but nowadays the perlobj documentation suggests not to use it.
The general problem with it is that code written this way is ambiguous and exercises Perl's parser to test the namespace to e.g. check when you write method Namespace whether Namespace::method exists.
While modifying an existing program's CASE statement, I had to add a second block where some logic is repeated to set NetWeaver portal settings. This is done by setting values in a local variable, then assigning that variable to a Changing parameter. I copied over the code and did a Pretty Print, expecting to compiler to complain about the unknown variable. To my surprise however, this code actually compiles just fine:
CASE i_actionid.
WHEN 'DOMIGO'.
DATA: ls_portal_actions TYPE powl_follow_up_sty.
CLEAR ls_portal_actions.
ls_portal_actions-bo_system = 'SAP_ECC_Common'.
" [...]
c_portal_actions = ls_portal_actions.
WHEN 'EBELN'.
ls_portal_actions-bo_system = 'SAP_ECC_Common'.
" [...]
C_PORTAL_ACTIONS = ls_portal_actions.
ENDCASE.
As I have seen in every other programming language, the DATA: declaration in the first WHEN statement should be encapsulated and available only inside that switch block. Does SAP ignore this encapsulation to make that value available in the entire CASE statement? Is this documented anywhere?
Note that this code compiles just fine and double-clicking the local variable in the second switch takes me to the data declaration in the first. I have however not been able to test that this code executes properly as our testing environment is down.
In short you cannot do this. You will have the following scopes in an abap program within which to declare variables (from local to global):
Form routine: all variables between FORM and ENDFORM
Method: all variables between METHOD and ENDMETHOD
Class - all variables between CLASS and ENDCLASS but only in the CLASS DEFINITION section
Function module: all variables between FUNCTION and ENDFUNCTION
Program/global - anything not in one of the above is global in the current program including variables in PBO and PAI modules
Having the ability to define variables locally in a for loop or if is really useful but unfortunately not possible in ABAP. The closest you will come to publicly available documentation on this is on help.sap.com: Local Data in the Subroutine
As for the compile process do not assume that ABAP will optimize out any variables you do not use it won't, use the code inspector to find and remove them yourself. Since ABAP works the way it does I personally define all my variables at the start of a modularization unit and not inline with other code and have gone so far as to modify the pretty printer to move any inline definitions to the top of the current scope.
Your assumption that a CASE statement defines its own scope of variables in ABAP is simply wrong (and would be wrong for a number of other programming languages as well). It's a bad idea to litter your code with variable declarations because that makes it awfully hard to read and to maintain, but it is possible. The DATA statements - as well as many other declarative statements - are only evaluated at compile time and are completely ignored at runtime. You can find more information about the scopes in the online documentation.
The inline variable declarations are now possible with the newest version of SAP Netweaver. Here is the link to the documentation DATA - inline declaration. Here are also some guidelines of a good and bad usage of this new feature
Here is a quote from this site:
A declaration expression with the declaration operator DATA declares a variable var used as an operand in the current writer position. The declared variable is visible statically in the program from DATA(var) and is valid in the current context. The declaration is made when the program is compiled, regardless of whether the statement is actually executed.
Personally have not had time to check it out yet, because of lack of access to such system.