[fpc-devel] Templates / Generics Syntax

[Mattias Gaertner]

On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 22:35:34 +0100
Peter Vreman <peter at freepascal.org> wrote:

> At 20:41 3-11-2005, you wrote:
> >On Thu, 3 Nov 2005 20:25:07 +0100 (CET)
> >Daniël Mantione <daniel.mantione at freepascal.org> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Op Thu, 3 Nov 2005, schreef Mattias Gaertner:
> > >
> > > > Right. I didn't think of that.
> > > >
> > > > What about edged brackets?
> > > >
> > > > type
> > > >   TGenericClass[T,F] = class
> > > >   public
> > > >     procedure Add(Item: T; Flag: F);
> > > >   end;
> > >
> > > At first sight it looks okay. If necessary it is possible to introduce
> > > a two character bracket, i.e. (# #) or (! !),
> >
> >Hmm. Emoticons in Freepascal. Nice idea.
> >
> >(:T:)
> >
> >
> > > or with whatever character you want as long as it is not a prefix or
> > > postfix operator.
> >
> >Yes. As I said, I will implement it first in Lazarus, so we can see what
> >it bites.
> 
> The syntax is the easy part. 

Yes. But the WIKI was not even finished on this part.


> How to parse the body of procedures of a 
> generic type is the crucial part. The normal pascal parser can't be used 
> because that requires knowledge of the types.
> 
> The easiest way to implement generics are like macro's with parameters.

Something like that I have in mind.
My main goal is to reduce boring paste/copy/replace, not to moisten FPC.


Mattias