[swift-evolution] Custom annotation processors?

[品雪]

No, they are not same. Macro and preprocessor changes the language as well,
any RTTI supported feature doesn't, but only affects runtime behavior.
Operator overloading changes semantic of existed language element, but
doesn't enable introducing of any new syntax element.

Java's annotation allows you to add any @ beginning identifier as they are
part of the language. It is more like I cannot tell if a function call is
right or not before read the document of that library. But I wish we may
keep the language pre-defined.

PS, Java Annotation is obviously not equal to implement DI, AspectJ existed
before annotation was added and configuration file based methods existed
even longer.



On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 2:21 PM, Talin <viridia at gmail.com> wrote:

> You can say that about any metaprogramming feature, including operator
> overloading, parametric polymorphism, automated code generation, or any
> other form of programmable syntax - all of these features have to be used
> with care because they essentially create new dialects of the language. As
> for using annotations to drive dependency injection, this is used by
> thousands of Google engineers on a daily basis and people generally find it
> quite powerful and helpful. I actually think it is syntactically less
> dangerous overall than the ability to invent new infix operators, because
> at least you have an imported name that you can search for.
>
> My own personal interest is in metaprogramming, that is "code that
> operates on code", whether it be by reflection, template instantiation, or
> automated code generation. In Java, this is sometimes done through
> reflection, and sometimes via annotation processors, which are plugins to
> the Java compiler that can examine the annotations and generate additional
> helper classes. By contrast, in my own experimental language, the output of
> the compiler is stored in a generic introspectable binary file format,
> similar to protocol buffers, which can easily be taken apart and
> re-assembled by any programming language (C, Python, Swift, Go, etc),
> allowing any sort of post-processing on a compiled module.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 10:01 PM, Yang Wu <pinxue at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> -1 on user-created annotation.
>>
>> I wrote Java since 90s and hate user-created annotation. Annotation is
>> indeed a backdoor in syntax system, it makes source code totally
>> un-understandable before you read reference of the annotation.
>>
>> 在 2016年1月14日，上午9:24，Talin via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org>
>> 写道：
>>
>> As a former Googler, I've spent a lot of years writing Java code that
>> uses dependency injection, and this relies heavily on the ability to have
>> custom annotations/attributes in the language - particularly, user-defined
>> attributes on function parameters - and to generate additional code at
>> compile time via annotation processors. Although dependency injection does
>> have it's detractors, it's getting better (current best of breed is
>> http://google.github.io/dagger/), and it solves an amazing array of
>> problems, including the ability for asynchronous programming to disappear
>> into the underlying framework - you just write synchronous code and the
>> framework handles the rest (no more futures!).
>>
>> Now, you can of course do dependency injection without custom attribute
>> support in the language, but it's much more cumbersome. The user-defined
>> attributes allow you to specify, in a simple declarative way, the runtime
>> dependencies between various classes. Without it you have to build up those
>> dependencies in code, using some sort of fluent interface or builder
>> pattern.
>>
>> So my question is, is there any plan for Swift to support user-created
>> annotations, and annotation processing compilation stages?
>>
>> --
>> -- Talin
>> _______________________________________________
>> swift-evolution mailing list
>> swift-evolution at swift.org
>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> -- Talin
>



-- 
Best Regards!

Yang Wu
--------------------------------------------------------
Location: Pudong, Shanghai, China.
EMail    : pinxue at gmail.com
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