I got this oddity while debugging a Clojure sourcefile today: user=> <right click "load file" in netbeans> #<CompilerException java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Parameter declaration loop should be a vector (io.clj:55)> user=>
Huh? Line 55 is a blank line! user=> <right click "load file" in netbeans again> #<CompilerException java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Parameter declaration loop should be a vector (io.clj:65)> user=> <and again> #<CompilerException java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Parameter declaration loop should be a vector (io.clj:76)> user=> The line number is changing every time and every line is innocuous (though only the first time was it actually blank). No unmatched delimiters that could be derailing the parser. So I manually check every occurrence of "loop" (ok, helped a bit by isearch) but every one of them has a vector of bindings. Every one of those is empty (they're all loops that sleep and wait on an external condition, used where a C or Java programmer would have used while (true)) but that's supposed to be legal. user=> (loop [] 1) 1 user=> And apparently it still is. So I decide to check everything ELSE that requires vectors, starting with defn and defn- arglists and planning to move on to let bindings, fn arglists, and such. I promptly find three defn- forms for no-argument functions with no arglists and fix them by adding empty arglists. The file then compiles successfully. None of them were anywhere near any of the line numbers I got in the error messages. The error messages appear to contain two errors, then: 1. They specify a loop lacks a vector when it's a defn lacking a vector that caused them. 2. The line numbers specified are not only not in general the actual location of the error in the source file, they aren't even a deterministic function of the input file and its dependencies. If the Clojure compiler were implemented in C I'd suspect an uninitialized automatic variable in the routine used to generate that particular error message. In Java (or Clojure itself!) this simply shouldn't happen. I'm mystified as to what could be causing this. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
