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- Keyword Arguments in Java
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- <h1 id="keyword-arguments-in-java">Keyword Arguments in Java</h1>
-<h2 id="what">What</h2>
-<p>Java arguments are traditionally passed by position:</p>
-<pre><code>void foo(int x, int y, int z)
-</code></pre>
-<p>matches the call</p>
-<pre><code>foo(1, 2, 3)
-</code></pre>
-<p>and assigns <code>1</code> to <code>x</code>, <code>2</code> to <code>y</code>, and <code>3</code> to <code>z</code> in the resulting
-activation. Keyword arguments assign values to formal parameters by matching
-the parameter's name, instead.</p>
-<h2 id="why">Why</h2>
-<p>Fuck the builder pattern, okay? Patterns like</p>
-<pre><code>Response r = Response
- .status(200)
- .entity(foo)
- .header("X-Plane", "Amazing")
- .build();
-</code></pre>
-<p>(from JAX-RS) mean the creation and maintenance of an entire separate type
-just to handle arbitrary ordering and presence/absence of options. Ordering
-can be done using keywords; presence/absence can be done by providing one
-method for each legal combination of arguments (or by adding optional
-arguments to Java).</p>
-<p>The keyword-argument version would be something like</p>
-<pre><code>Response r = new Response(
- .status = 200,
- .entity = foo,
- .headers = Arrays.asList(Header.of("X-Plane", "Amazing"))
-);
-</code></pre>
-<p>and the <code>ResponseBuilder</code> class would not need to exist at all for this case.
-(There are others in JAX-RS that would still make <code>ResponseBuilder</code> mandatory,
-but the use case for it gets much smaller.)</p>
-<p>As an added bonus, the necessary class metadata to make this work would also
-allow reflective frameworks such as Spring to make sensible use of the
-parameter names:</p>
-<pre><code>&lt;bean class="com.example.Person"&gt;
- &lt;constructor-arg name="name" value="Erica McKenzie" /&gt;
-&lt;/bean&gt;
-</code></pre>
-<h2 id="other-languages">Other Languages</h2>
-<p>Python, most recently:</p>
-<pre><code>def foo(x, y, z):
- pass
-
-foo(z=3, x=1, y=2)
-</code></pre>
-<p>Smalltalk (and ObjectiveC) use an interleaving convention that reads very much
-like keyword arguments:</p>
-<pre><code>Point atX: 5 atY: 8
-</code></pre>
-<h2 id="challenges">Challenges</h2>
-<ul>
-<li>Minimize changes to syntax.<ul>
-<li>Make keyword arguments unambiguous.</li>
-</ul>
-</li>
-<li>Minimize changes to bytecode spec.</li>
-</ul>
-<h2 id="proposal">Proposal</h2>
-<p>Given a method definition</p>
-<pre><code>void foo(int x, int y, int z)
-</code></pre>
-<p>Allow calls written as</p>
-<pre><code>foo(
- SOME-SYNTAX(x, EXPR),
- SOME-SYNTAX(y, EXPR),
- SOME-SYNTAX(z, EXPR)
-)
-</code></pre>
-<p><code>SOME-SYNTAX</code> is a production that is not already legal at that point in Java,
-which is a surprisingly frustrating limitation. Constructs like</p>
-<pre><code>foo(x = EXPR, y = EXPR, z = EXPR)
-</code></pre>
-<p>are already legal (assignment is an expression) and already match positional
-arguments.</p>
-<p>Keyword arguments match the name of the formal argument in the method
-declaration. Passing a keyword argument that does not match a formal argument
-is a compilation error.</p>
-<p>Calls can mix keyword arguments and positional arguments, in the following
-order:</p>
-<ol>
-<li>Positional arguments.</li>
-<li>Varargs positional arguments.</li>
-<li>Keyword arguments.</li>
-</ol>
-<p>Passing the same argument as both a positional and a keyword argument is a
-compilation error.</p>
-<p>Call sites must satisfy every argument the method/constructor has (i.e., this
-doesn't imply optional arguments). This makes implementation easy and
-unintrusive: the compiler can implement keyword arguments by transforming them
-into positional arguments. Reflective calls (<code>Method.invoke</code> and friends) can
-continue accepting arguments as a sequence.</p>
-<p>The <code>Method</code> class would expose a new method:</p>
-<pre><code>public List&lt;String&gt; getArgumentNames()
-</code></pre>
-<p>The indexes in <code>getArgumentNames</code> match the indexes in <code>getArgumentTypes</code> and
-related methods.</p>
-<p>Possibilities for syntax:</p>
-<ul>
-<li>
-<p><code>foo(x := 5, y := 8, z := 2)</code> - <code>:=</code> is never a legal sequence of tokens in
- Java. Introduces one new operator-like construct; the new sequence <code>:=</code>
- “looks like” assignment, which is a useful mnemonic.</p>
-</li>
-<li>
-<p><code>foo(x ~ 5, y ~ 8, z ~ 2)</code> - <code>~</code> is not a binary operator and this is never
- legal right now. This avoids introducing new operators, but adds a novel
- interpretation to an existing unary operator that's not related to its
- normal use.</p>
-</li>
-<li>
-<p><code>foo(.x = 5, .y = 8, .z = 2)</code> - using <code>=</code> as the keyword binding feels more
- natural. Parameter names must be legal identifiers, which means the leading
- dot is unambiguous. This syntax is not legal anywhere right now (the dot
- always has a leading expression). The dot is a “namespace” symbol already.</p>
-</li>
-</ul>
-<p>To support this, the class file format will need to record the names of
-parameters, not just their order. This is a breaking change, and generated
-names will need to be chosen for existing class files. (This may be derivable
-from debug information, where present.)</p>
-<h2 id="edge-cases">Edge Cases</h2>
-<ul>
-<li>Mixed positional and keyword arguments.<ul>
-<li>Collisions (same argument passed by both) are, I think, detectable at
- compile time. This should be an error.</li>
-</ul>
-</li>
-<li>Inheritance. It is legal for a superclass to define <code>foo(a, b)</code> and for
- subclasses to override it as <code>foo(x, y)</code>. Which argument names do you use
- when?</li>
-<li>Varargs.</li>
-</ul>
- </div>
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