[fpc-devel] Templates / Generics

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 19:29:51 +0100
Bram Kuijvenhoven <kuifwaremailinglists at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> Micha Nelissen wrote:
> > On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:45:19 +0100
> > Bram Kuijvenhoven <kuifwaremailinglists at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> >>Does <> for generics fit into Pascal? Well, we use [] for array
> >indexing, and () for parameter passing to procedures/functions/methods.
> >So why not use <> for passing parameters to generic types? And, similar
> >to the case of function calls and array indexing, these <> could follow
> >the type identifier directly.
> > 
> > You got a point here, but the "where T is Foo" stuff is crap then, don't
> > you agree?
> > 
> > TGType<T: TBaseType> = class(...) ... end;
> > 
> > is better then, when compared to your parameter example.
> 
> I indeed don't like the "where T is foo" of Chrome :) So you are totally
> right, TGType<T : TBaseType> is a lot better and a lot more consistent
> (with e.g. function parameter syntaxis).

Let's sum up the different points for the syntax so far:

- <> will probably be used by Delphi
- <> bites the < operator
- <> makes the parser more difficult and slow
- <> makes pascal more ambigious
- alternatives: modifiers or not yet used brackets like (! !) or (# #)

It seems to me, it's a question of: Follow Delphi generics or not.
And we don't know, where Delphi will go. They will not have generics in the
next one and a half year and as always: They will do a few things completely
different than expected.
If we follow, then we will do, as Florian et al said.
If not, then the <> is not the best solution.

Is this correct so far?


Mattias