Are there any differences between "any" and "*"? - jsdoc

Looking at https://github.com/gajus/eslint-plugin-jsdoc, it seems like {any} and {*} are interchangeable.
However, https://github.com/google/closure-compiler/wiki/Types-in-the-Closure-Type-System makes no mention of {any}, and differentiates between "any" and "all".
Is there a difference between any and *?

Checking the sources of the Typescript compiler (The one that parses the JSDoc for typings) it shows that any, * (JSDoc ALL Type) and ? (JSDoc Unknown/ANY Type) are treated the same:
TypeScript/src/compiler/checker.ts
function getTypeFromTypeNodeWorker(node: TypeNode): Type {
switch (node.kind) {
case SyntaxKind.AnyKeyword:
case SyntaxKind.JSDocAllType:
case SyntaxKind.JSDocUnknownType:
return anyType;
// ...
Also, the logic for the Javascript to Typescript file transformer does the same:
TypeScript/src/services/codefixes/annotateWithTypeFromJSDoc.ts
function transformJSDocType(node: TypeNode): TypeNode {
switch (node.kind) {
case SyntaxKind.JSDocAllType:
case SyntaxKind.JSDocUnknownType:
return factory.createTypeReferenceNode("any", emptyArray);
// ...

Related

Can macros expand array/vector into multiple indexed arguments?

Is it possible to write a macro that expands an expression into multiple indexed arguments, which can be passed to a function or another macro?
See this simple self contained example.The aim is to have unpack3 expand v into v[0], v[1], v[2].
macro_rules! elem {
($val:expr, $($var:expr), *) => {
$($val == $var) || *
}
}
// attempt to expand an array.
macro_rules! unpack3 {
($v:expr) => {
$v[0], $v[1], $v[2]
}
}
fn main() {
let a = 2;
let vars = [0, 1, 3];
// works!
if elem!(a, vars[0], vars[1], vars[2]) {
println!("Found!");
}
// fails!
if elem!(a, unpack3!(vars)) {
println!("Found!");
}
}
The second example fails, is it possible to make this work?
Possible solutions could include:
Changing use of macro grammar.
Using tuples, then expanding into arguments after.
Re-arranging the expressions to workaround macro constraints.
Note, this may be related to Escaping commas in macro output but don't think its a duplicate.
This is impossible in two different ways.
First, to quote the answer to the question you yourself linked: "No; the result of a macro must be a complete grammar construct like an expression or an item. You absolutely cannot have random bits of syntax like a comma or a closing brace." Just because it isn't exactly a comma doesn't change matters: a collection of function arguments are not a complete grammar construct.
Secondly, macros cannot parse the output of other macros. This requires eager expansion, which Rust doesn't have. You can only do this using recursion.

Building an enum inside a macro

Is it possible to build an enum inside a Rust macro using fields that are defined as macro parameters? I've tried this:
macro_rules! build {
($($case:ty),*) => { enum Test { $($case),* } };
}
fn main() {
build!{ Foo(i32), Bar(i32, i32) };
}
But it fails with error: expected ident, found 'Foo(i32)'
Note that if the fields are defined inside the enum, there is no problem:
macro_rules! build {
($($case:ty),*) => { enum Test { Foo(i32), Bar(i32, i32) } };
}
fn main() {
build!{ Foo(i32), Bar(i32, i32) };
}
It also works if my macro only accepts simple fields:
macro_rules! build {
($($case:ident),*) => { enum Test { $($case),* } };
}
fn main() {
build!{ Foo, Bar };
}
But I've been unable to get it to work in the general case.
It's absolutely possible, but you're conflating totally unrelated concepts.
Something like $case:ty does not mean $case is something which looks like a type, it means $case is literally a type. Enums are not made up of a sequence of types; they're made up of a sequence of variants which are an identifier followed (optionally) by a tuple structure body, a record structure body, or a tag value.
The parser doesn't care if the type you give it happens to coincidentally look like a valid variant, it's simply not expecting a type, and will refuse to parse one in that position.
What you need is to use something like $case:variant. Unfortunately for you, no such matcher exists. The only way to do something like this is to manually parse it using a recursive incremental parser and that is so out of scope of an SO question it's not funny. If you want to learn more, try the chapter on incremental TT munchers in the Little Book of Rust Macros as a starting point.
However, you don't appear to actually do anything with the cases. You're just blindly substituting them. In that case, you can just cheat and not bother with trying to match anything coherent:
macro_rules! build {
($($body:tt)*) => {
as_item! {
enum Test { $($body)* }
}
};
}
macro_rules! as_item {
($i:item) => { $i };
}
fn main() {
build!{ Foo, Bar };
}
(Incidentally, that as_item! thing is explained in the section on AST coercion (a.k.a. "the reparse trick").)
This just grabs everything provided as input to build!, and shoves it into the body of an enum without caring what it looks like.
If you were trying to do something meaningful with the variants, well, you're going to have to be more specific about what you're actually trying to accomplish, as the best advice of how to proceed varies wildly depending on the answer.

How do I write a wrapper for a macro without repeating the rules?

I am trying to make a wrapper for a macro. The trouble is that I don't want to repeat the same rules in both macro. Is there a way to do that?
Here is what I tried:
macro_rules! inner {
($test:ident) => { stringify!($test) };
($test:ident.run()) => { format!("{}.run()", stringify!($test)) };
}
macro_rules! outer {
($expression:expr) => {
println!("{}", inner!($expression));
}
}
fn main() {
println!("{}", inner!(test));
println!("{}", inner!(test.run()));
outer!(test);
outer!(test.run());
}
but I get the following error:
src/main.rs:8:31: 8:42 error: expected ident, found test
src/main.rs:8 println!("{}", inner!($expression));
^~~~~~~~~~~
If I change the outer macro for this, the code compile:
macro_rules! outer {
($expression:expr) => {
println!("{}", stringify!($expression));
}
}
What am I doing wrong?
macro_rules! is both cleverer and dumber than you might realise.
Initially, all input to a macro begins life as undifferentiated token soup. An Ident here, StrLit there, etc. However, when you match and capture a bit of the input, generally the input will be parsed in an Abstract Syntax Tree node; this is the case with expr.
The "clever" bit is that when you substitute this capture (for example, $expression), you don't just substitute the tokens that were originally matched: you substitute the entire AST node as a single token. So there's now this weird not-really-a-token in the output that's an entire syntax element.
The "dumb" bit is that this process is basically irreversible and mostly totally invisible. So let's take your example:
outer!(test);
We run this through one level of expansion, and it becomes this:
println!("{}", inner!(test));
Except, that's not what it looks like. To make things clearer, I'm going to invent some non-standard syntax:
println!("{}", inner!( $(test):expr ));
Pretend that $(test):expr is a single token: it's an expression which can be represented by the token sequence test. It is not simply the token sequence test. This is important, because when the macro interpreter goes to expand that inner! macro, it checks the first rule:
($test:ident) => { stringify!($test) };
The problem is that $(test):expr is an expression, not an identifier. Yes, it contains an identifier, but the macro interpreter doesn't look that deep. It sees an expression and just gives up.
It fails to match the second rule for the same reason.
So what do you do? ... Well, that depends. If outer! doesn't do any sort of processing on its input, you can use a tt matcher instead:
macro_rules! outer {
($($tts:tt)*) => {
println!("{}", inner!($($tts)*));
}
}
tt will match any token tree (see the Macros chapter of the Rust Book). $($tts:tt)* will match any sequence of tokens, without changing them. This of this as a way to safely forward a bunch of tokens to another macro.
If you need to do processing on the input and forward it on to the inner! macro... you're probably going to have to repeat the rules.
I had some success with the $($stuff: expr),+ syntax.
macro_rules! println {
( $($stuff: expr),+) => {
avr_device::interrupt::free(|cs| {
uwriteln!(unsafe { &SERIAL_STATIC}.borrow(cs).borrow_mut().as_mut().unwrap(),
$($stuff),+)
})
}
}

why not using method call instead of using properties?

I'm studying Swift language, and in github.com, i found SwiftHelper.
In it's IntHelper.swift file, I found below code:
extension Int {
var isEven: Bool {
let remainder = self % 2
return remainder == 0
}
var isOdd: Bool {
return !isEven
}
}
why isEven and isOdd were written as properties, not method calls?
In this situation, Using property has any advantage over using method calls?
In purely technical terms, there are no advantages or disadvantages to using a property over a method or vice versa* : the only difference is in readability.
In this particular case, I think that using an extension property makes for better readability than using a method call, because it reads better. Compare
if myInt.isOdd {
... // Do something
}
vs.
if myInt.isOdd() {
... // Do something
}
vs.
if isOdd(myInt) {
... // Do something
}
The first (property) and second (method) code fragments keeps words in the same order as they are in English, contributing to somewhat better readability. However, the second one adds an unnecessary pair of parentheses. For completeness, the third way of accomplishing the same task (a function) is less readable than the other two.
* This also applies to other languages that support properties, for example, Objective-C and C#.
The properties used in the extension are what's known as 'computed properties' - which in a lot of ways are like a method :) in that they don't store any state themselves, but rather return some computed value.
The choice between implementing a 'property' vs. a 'method' for something like this can be thought of in semantic terms; here, although the value is being computed, it simply serves to represent some information about the state of the object (technically 'struct' in the case of Int) in the way that you would expect a property to, and asking for that state isn't asking it to modify either itself or any of its dependencies.
In terms of readability, methods in Swift (even those without arguments) still require parens - you can see the difference that makes in this example:
// as a property
if 4.isEven { println("all is right in the world") }
// as a method
if 5.isEven() { println("we have a problem") }

How do I cast to an interface an object may implement?

I have the following classes & interfaces:
export interface IBody {
body : ListBody;
}
export class Element {
// ...
}
export class Paragraph extends Element implements IBody {
// ...
}
export class Character extends Element {
// ...
}
I have code where I will get an array of Element derived objects (there are more than just Paragraph & Character). In the case of those that implement IBody, I need to take action on the elements in the body.
What is the best way to see if it implements IBody? Is it "if (element.body !== undefined)"?
And then how do I access it? "var bodyElement = <IBody> element;" gives me an error.
C:/src/jenova/Dev/Merge/AutoTagWeb/client/layout/document/elements/factory.ts(34,27): error TS2012: Cannot convert 'Element' to 'IBody':
Type 'Element' is missing property 'body' from type 'IBody'.
Type 'IBody' is missing property 'type' from type 'Element'.
thanks - dave
An interface in TypeScript is a compile-time only construct, with no run-time representation. You might find section 7 of the TypeScript specification interesting to read as it has the complete details.
So, you can't "test" for an interface specifically. Done correctly and completely, you generally shouldn't need to test for it as the compiler should have caught the cases where an object didn't implement the necessary interface. If you were to try using a type assertion:
// // where e has been typed as any, not an Element
var body = <IBody> e;
The compiler will allow it without warning as you've asserted that the type is an IBody. If however, e were an Element in scope, the compiler as you've shown will check the signature of the Element and confirm that it has the properties/methods declared by IBody. It's important to note that it's checking the signature -- it doesn't matter that it may not implement IBody as long as the signature matches up.
Assuming that Element has a signature that matches IBody, it will work. If it does not, you'll get the compiler error you're receiving. But, again, if it's declared as any, the assertion will pass and at run-time, unless the type has the methods defined on IBody, the script will fail.
As your Element is the base class, you cannot check for IBody. You could declare an argument as any:
function someFeature(e: any) {
}
And then assert that the IBody is present:
function someFeature(e: any) {
var body :IBody = <IBody> e;
// do something
}
However, if you do need a run-time check, you'd need to look for the function on the prototype or as a property before using it. While that could be misleading in some cases, the interface in TypeScript also may not have caught the mismatch either. Here's an example of how you could check for the existence of a specific function.
It might look like this:
function someFeature(e: any) {
var body = <IBody> e;
if (typeof (body.someFunctionOnBodyInterface) === "undefined") {
// not safe to use the function
throw new Error("Yikes!");
}
body.someFunctionOnBodyInterface();
}