[racket-dev] Keywords

I like this idea a lot. -- Matthias



On Jun 17, 2013, at 10:52 AM, Laurent wrote:

> Actually I realize I'd like something exactly like `instantiate'.
> If instantiate used keywords instead of bindings, and removing the `instantiate' word, we would then even have the exact same syntax for class instantiation and procedure call:
> 
> (define nemo (fish% "Nemo" #:age 3))   ; instantiates `fish%'
> 
> Of course this could be extended to structs.
> 
> This would harmonize different calling mechanisms, as well as being more flexible.
> Wouldn't that be nice?
> 
> Laurent
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 8:12 AM, Laurent <laurent.orseau at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 1:42 AM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
> At Thu, 9 May 2013 16:22:54 +0200, Laurent wrote: 
> > I've always wondered why the syntax of keywords implied two elements: the
> > #:keyword and the identifier.
> > I find that quite heavy for procedure headers, and most of the time I use
> > the same symbol for the identifier and the keyword (and when I don't it's
> > because I'm simply lazy and use a shorter identifier).
> >
> > Is there a rationale somewhere for that?
> 
> The rationale is to make function definitions have the same shape as
> function calls.
> 
> I see what you mean, though I wouldn't make a strong case of it (maybe I'm 
> missing something).
> 
> From time to time, I really feel frustrated by the current function header style.
> 
> What I'd really like, for the sake of flexibility / ease of use, is to
> have no explicit keyword argument, but all arguments are implicit ones, so 
> that you can call a function by mixing by position and by name as you like, 
> without having specified so in the function's header.
> (Visual Basic[1] and Python[2] do something along these lines.)
> 
> For example:
> (define (foo x y [z 3] [t 4]) ....)
> 
> (foo 1 2 5)
> (foo #:z 5 #:y 1 #:x 2)
> (foo 1 #:t 6 #:y 3)
> 
> (foo #:x 3)
> Error: missing mandatory argument `y'
> 
> (apply/kw f 2 #:y 3 '(5) '((t . 3)))
> 
> In particular, one would then not have to worry about the order of the
> optional arguments in the function definition.
> 
> Headers would be also smaller, easier to read, and easier to write.
> 
> Pushing a bit further:
> (define (foo x y . rest) ....)
> would not accept keywords different from #:x and #:y, but
> (define (foo x y . rest-by-pos . rest-by-name) ....)
> would receive a list of positional argument values, and a dictionary of 
> names and values, even if these names are not x or y.
> 
> Laurent
> [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/51wfzyw0.aspx
> [2] http://www.diveintopython.net/power_of_introspection/optional_arguments.html
> 
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