How to assign to base field? - f#

I have a base class with a field called 'Root'. I am trying to assign a value to it by using the following code inside the do binding
base.Root <- somevar
I am getting the following error
error FS0419: 'base' values may only be used to make direct calls to the base implementations of overridden members
What am I missing? It is a field not property in the base class

Apparently, F# compiler does not allow mutating a field of the base class via base. reference in derived class constructor; and the error message prompts you of valid base. keyword usages.
Nevertheless, you may try a nasty hack, for example by upcasting constructed derived instance as in a snippet below :
type FormulaGrammar() as self =
inherit Grammar()
do
... stuff from your gist here......
(self :> Grammar).Root <- expr
Although after a brief peek into your C# prototype irony.aspx I'd say that similar part of constructor there uses not base Grammar, but derived type ExpressionGrammar for setting the Root field, which upon your code simply translates into self.Root <- expr.

Related

If a set literal is of type set then what is its class in dart?

So the following code snippet
Set mySet = {1,2,3};
is an instance of type Set which is permissible, however what would the class of the set literal be. I have tried to search for this, however I have found no answer in the dart documentation.
A literal exists only in your source code. Asking for its "class" doesn't make a lot of sense.
Using a Set, Map, or List literal is just syntactic sugar for invoking a corresponding constructor. The Set factory constructor constructs a LinkedHashSet.
However, you'll see that LinkedHashSet is also abstract. Its factory constructor returns an instance of a private, internal class. You can see its typename via print(Set().runtimeType); the actual type might be different for different platforms and is unlikely to be useful to you.

What's mean colon inside a dart class?

I'm trying understand what's the mean of this two final lines of code, on colons... It's a syntax question.
I'm following this github example and I have this doubt on my head.
Can someone help me with this?.
class DietPlan extends ParseObject implements ParseCloneable {
DietPlan() : super(keyDietPlan);
DietPlan.clone() : this();
The part after : is called "initializer list.
It is a list of expressions that can access constructor parameters and can assign to instance fields, even final instance fields.
The first colon, i.e. DietPlan() : super(keyDietPlan); means that you are calling the super constructor, constructor of ParseCloneable in this case.
This is a core OOP concept, you can extend or implement one class to another and you must call the superclass constructor if you do so. This is just a style of doing the same in Dart.
The second colon works in similar way, to understand that you need to understand what is cloning of objects,
Object cloning refers to creation of exact copy of an object. It creates a new instance of the class of current object and initializes all its fields with exactly the contents of the corresponding fields of this object.
This is whats happening on the second line.

Is it possible to require generic type arguments on a Dart class?

A common question, specifically since Dart 2, is if it is possible to require some or all generic type arguments on some or all types - for example List<int> instead of List or MyType<Foo> instead of MyType.
It's not always clear what the intention is though - i.e. is this a matter of style (you/your team likes to see the types), to prevent bugs (omitting type arguments seems to cause more bugs for you/your team), or as a matter of contract (your library expects a type argument).
For example, on dart-misc, a user writes:
Basically, if I have this:
abstract class Mixin<T> {}
I don't have to specify the type:
// Works class Cls extends Object with Mixin<int> {} // ...also works
class Cls extends Object with Mixin {}
Is there some way to make the second one not allowed?
Strictly speaking, yes, and no.
If you want to enforce that type arguments are always used in your own projects (instead of relying on type inference or defaults), you can use optional linter rules such as always_specify_types. Do note this rule violates the official Dart style guide's recommendation of AVOID redundant type arguments on generic invocations in many cases.
If you want to enforce that generic type arguments are always used when the default would be confusing - such as List implicitly meaning List<dynamic>, no such lint exists yet - though we plan on adding this as a mode of the analyzer: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/33119.
Both of the above recommendations will help yourself, but if you are creating a library for others to use, you might be asking if you can require a type argument to use your class. For example, from above:
abstract class Mixin<T> {}
abstract class Class extends Object with Mixin {}
The first thing you could do is add a default bounds to T:
// If T is omitted/not inferred, it defaults to num, not dynamic.
abstract class Mixin<T extends num> {}
If you want to allow anything but want to make it difficult to use your class/mixin when T is dynamic you could choose a different default bound, for example Object, or even better I recommend void:
In practice, I use void to mean “anything and I don’t care about the elements”
abstract class Mixin<T extends void> {
T value;
}
class Class extends Mixin {}
void main() {
var c = Class();
// Compile-time error: 'oops' isn't defined for the class 'void'.
c.value.oops();
}
(You could also use Object for this purpose)
If this is a class under your control, you could add an assertion that prevents the class from being used in a way you don't support or expect. For example:
class AlwaysSpecifyType<T> {
AlwaysSpecifyType() {
assert(T != dynamic);
}
}
Finally, you could write a custom lint or tool to disallow certain generic type arguments from being omitted, but that is likely the most amount of work, and if any of the previous approaches work for you, I'd strongly recommend those!

Type name as identifier in F#

I just started to study F# and accidentally wrote this binding
let List = 1
Now when I try to obtain List methods such as 'filter' I get this error
error FS0039: The field, constructor or member 'filter' is not defined.
Of course using method with full type name like Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List.filter is still working.
I'm wondering why it is possible to use type name as identifier in F# and how I can set back name List to type List from Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.
When I tried to reassign like this
type List = Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List<'T>
I get
Error FS0039: The type parameter 'T is not defined.
Thank you!
In F# you can redefine almost everything and shadow existing definitions. This applies to both types (well actually types have a different behavior regarding shadowing, they shadow their values as you open the namespaces) and values but not interchangeably since values and type (and also modules) can somehow coexist at the same time in the scope. The compiler will do his best to find out which one is.
You are not forced to, but it's a common good practice in F# not to use let bindings in uppercase.
Regarding your second question, you are using a type parameter in the right side which doesn't exist in the left side of the assignment, it should be:
type List<'T> = Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List<'T>
But notice that filter doesn't belong to the type. It's rather defined in the List module.
You should just rename your let binding from List to something sensible - as Gustavo mentioned, your definition is shadowing the core List module from F# and there is no way to use List to refer both to your integer and to the module. Shadowing core functions will make your code pretty confusing. It's also a good idea to use camelCase for let bindings, but that's a matter of taste.
If you insist on shadowing List, then you won't be able to call List.filter using List.filter. If you wanted something shorter, you could define module alias:
module FsList = Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List
Note that your attempt to do something similar with List<'T> does not do the same thing, because functions such as filter are in a module named List rather than being static members of the type. With this, you can call filter using FsList.filter.

Get type of variable at run-time without having it assigned to an instance of an object and without mirrors

Is it possible to get the type of a variable in Dart at run-time, without having it assigned to an instance of an object and without using mirrors?
I know I can do this without mirrors (which is great!):
Foo foo;
foo = new Foo();
var fooType = foo.runTimeType; // This will give me a type of "Foo"
But I want to know the type of the variable before it is assigned to an object:
Foo foo;
var fooType = foo.runTimeType; // This will not give me a type of "Foo"
I am guessing it is not possible since the typing info is lost in run-time but would like to have it confirmed.
(My actual scenario is that I am doing dependency injection into a Polymer Element using Custom Events. I would like to put as much of this code as possible in an element base-class and have as little code as possible in each derived element class. One thing that I need to do this is to know the type of variables that are to be injected).

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