[fpc-pascal] named parameter

[Sven Barth]

2017-05-27 16:12 GMT+02:00 Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org>:
>
>
> On Sat, 27 May 2017, Sven Barth via fpc-pascal wrote:
>
>> 2017-05-27 9:54 GMT+02:00 Michael Van Canneyt <michael at freepascal.org>:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 27 May 2017, Mr Bee via fpc-pascal wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> As Pascal mostly well known as a safe, easy to read, and elegant
>>>> language,
>>>> don't you think Pascal needs named parameter? I mean for ALL kind of
>>>> parameters, not just for Variants. When you have a function with many
>>>> parameters having default values, you know that named parameter is
>>>> desirable. For example:
>>>>
>>>> function f(p1: string = ''; p2: integer = 0; p3: boolean = false);
>>>>
>>>> But you only need to supply the third parameter, you still must supply
>>>> the
>>>> first and second ones with appropriate default values, like this:
>>>>
>>>> f('', 0, true);
>>>>
>>>> while with named parameter, you can do this:
>>>>
>>>> f(p3 := true);
>>>>
>>>> I believe it would raise Pascal's code readability. I know it has been
>>>> discussed before. I know somehow the parser had been able to read such
>>>> syntax. So, why don't we have the option to enable it for people who
>>>> want
>>>> it? Kinda a syntax switch mode.
>>>>
>>>> What do you think? :)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Opinions on what constitutes readable code clearly differ :)
>>>
>>> But as far as I know, the parser is not able to read this syntax ?
>>
>>
>> The parser supports it for dispatch calls on variants (both methods
>> and properties). You even wrote that in your own article about Word
>> automation: https://www.freepascal.org/~michael/articles/word/word.pdf
>> ;)
>
>
> Yes, in Delphi. But I didn't know FPC also supports it ?

Yes, it does. I didn't find a testcase for it right away, but the
compiler definitely contains code for this.

Regards,
Sven