In Java you can have something like this
class MyClass<E extends A> { ...
In C#
class MyClass<E> where E : A { ...
Anything similar in Vala?
No, not supported in Vala.
This is all available keywords in the language Vala, and the "where" specifier is not there.
Here is a filled bug to ask for this feature.
I've had need for constraints as well, in the and I had to change my design to use a normal generic type.
Related
I'm confused as to the uses of "as" keyword.
Is it a cast operator or alias operator?
I encountered the following code on the internet which looked like a cast operator:
var list = json['images'] as List;
What does this mean?
as means different things in different contexts.
It's primarily used as a type cast operator. From the Dart Language Tour:
as: Typecast (also used to specify library prefixes)
It links to an explanation of how as is also used to add a prefix to an imported library to avoid name collisions. (as was reused to do different things to avoid needing extra keywords.)
just to add the as keyword is now flagged by the linter and they prefer you to use a check like is
if (pm is Person)
pm.firstName = 'Seth';
you can read more here https://github.com/dart-lang/linter/issues/145
As the language tour says:
Use the as operator to cast an object to a particular type if and only if you are sure that the object is of that type.
Following with your example:
var list = json['images'] as List;
You would use as here to cast or convert json['images'] into a <List> object.
From another SO post (talking about explicit cast vs. as):
as ... is more like an assertion, if the values type doesn't match as causes a runtime exception.
You can also use it when importing packages. A common example is the dart:convert as JSON which then can be reached final foo = JSON.jsonDecode(baz)
It's casting, your code is similar as:
List list = json['images'];
Why TypeProvider supports static parameters, how is this done, and does the f# compiler specifically support this feature?
I write a class myself, do not implement the ITypeProvider interface, can do the same effect?
The syntax of static parameters is not described in the f# language reference, is there any relevant help?
Thank you very much!
I think you are asking if the static parameters mechanism used in type providers can be used in ordinary F# code.
The short answer is no.
Type providers are special: they are compiler plug-ins that provides types, properties, and methods for use in your code. Special rules apply to them.
For example, I'd like to just be able to write:
class Dog {
final String name;
Dog(this.name);
bark() => 'Woof woof said $name';
}
But have #Dog.bark's type definition be () => String.
This previously wasn't possible in Dart 1.x, but I'm hoping type inference can save the day and avoid having to type trivial functions where the return type is inferable (the same as it does for closures today?)
The language team doesn't currently have any plans to do inference on member return types based on their bodies. There are definitely cases like this where it would be nice, but there are other cases (like recursive methods) where it doesn't work.
With inference, we have to balance a few opposing forces:
Having smart inference that handles lots of different cases to alleviate as much typing pain as we can.
Having some explicit type annotations so that things like API boundaries are well-defined. If you change a method body and that changes the inferred return type, now you've made a potentially breaking change to your API.
Having a simple boundary between code that is inferred and code that is not so that users can easily reason about which parts of their code are type safe and which need more attention.
The case you bring up is right at the intersection of those. Personally, I lean towards not inferring. I like my class APIs to be pretty explicitly typed anyway, since I find it makes them easier to read and maintain.
Keep in mind that there are similar cases where inference does come into play:
Dart will infer the return type of an anonymous function based on its body. That makes things like lambdas passed to map() do what you want.
It will infer the return type of a method override from the method it is overriding. You don't need to annotate the return type in Beagle.bark() here:
class Dog {
String bark() => "Bark!";
}
class Beagle extends Dog {
final String name;
Dog(this.name);
bark() => 'Woof woof said $name';
}
Using the ideas outlined in ding the article Using Dart with JSON Web Services at https://www.dartlang.org/articles/json-web-service/, I have been trying to implement the section on using JsonObject and interfaces to produce a strong typing of JSON data.
The article indicates that one should write something like.
abstract class Language {
String language;
List targets;
Map website;
}
class LanguageImpl extends JsonObject implements Language {
LanguageImpl();
factory LanguageImpl.fromJsonString(string) {
return new JsonObject.fromJsonString(string, new LanguageImpl());
}
}
However the compiler 'fail' at the definition of the class LanguageImpl with the message
Missing inherited members: 'Language.website', 'Language.targets' and
'Language.language'
Even more confusing the code will run without a problem....
In Darteditor you get Quick fix support for this.
Set the caret at LanguageImpl and press ctrl+1 or use the context menu > Quick fix.
You get the missing concrete implementations you inherit from the abstract base class generated automatically.
Dart is a dynamic language and therefor very flexible.
The tools support you and try to give meaningful warnings and hints about what could go wrong
but don't prevent you running a program even when it is not yet finished.
You can use the #proxy annotation on the class to silent the warnings.
This also needs the class to have a noSuchMethod() implementation.
Are there any plans to introduce attributes
for classes, methods, parameters of methods,
something like C# or Java attributes ?
[Test]
class SomeClass
{
[Test]
someMethod()
}
or
#Test
class SomeClass
{
#Test
someMethod(#Test int param)
}
For many frameworks it would be very useful
In dart, they are called metadata / annotation. The syntax is quite close to java. Here's a example :
#Test testMethod() {}
In Dart Specification you can read :
Metadata consists of a series of annotations, each of which begin with the character #, followed a constant expression that starts with an identifier. It is a compile time error if the expression is not one of the following:
A reference to a compile-time constant variable.
A call to a constant constructor.
[....]
Metadata can appear before a library, class, typedef, type parameter, constructor, factory, function, field, parameter, or variable declaration and before an import or export directive.
There're already some annotations predifined in dart:core. Particulary #override, #deprecated and #proxy.
Dart already has annotations, similar to Java in some ways, they're just not used in very many places yet, and they're not accessible from reflection yet either.
See this article: http://news.dartlang.org/2012/06/proposal-to-add-metadata-to-dart.html
Here's a brief introduction to the two metadata annotations currently available in the Dart meta library:
Dart Metadata is your friend.
This doesn't preclude you from using your own, but these are the two that have tooling integration with the Dart Editor.