Unfortunately, people actively avoid using public vars because we warn about them. Our warnings are too aggressive if it doesn't actually matter most of the time. Plus, this warning leaves a bad impression because it's such a basic feature of the language that pretty much everyone uses.
What can we do to provide a more sensible default behavior, while also giving someone the ability to tell the compiler that everything can be renamed (or selective renaming)? We could add an option that doesn't rename public things by default, but can also be toggled to rename everything. I guess we could have some @royalewhatever annotations to give someone selective control over which things are renamed or not, if someone needs that. Thoughts? -- Josh Tynjala Bowler Hat LLC <https://bowlerhat.dev> On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 10:50 AM Alex Harui <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure I understand your proposal. Are you proposing that all > public variables will be quoted and thus not renamed so we never warn > again? I am not in favor of that. IMO, the vast majority of public vars > can be renamed without penalty. It is only certain classes that will be > mapped to external code that matter. > > My 2 cents, > -Alex > > On 9/16/19, 10:46 AM, "Josh Tynjala" <[email protected]> wrote: > > You're right. After a number of tests, I cannot find any annotation (or > combination of them) that will prevent the renaming of variables > defined on > a prototype. All of the official advice that I see from Google suggests > quoting the properties (or using externs). So, from a Royale > perspective, > it looks like quoting the public variable's name is our best option. > > Similar to how we handle js-dynamic-access-unknown-members, we can > quote > the public variable's name when getting or setting it in JS: > > var foo = new Foo(); > foo["bar"] = 2; > var baz = foo["bar"]; > > In this case, we also need to quote the public variable's name when > declaring it on the prototype: > > Foo.prototype["bar"] = 3; > > I did some tests, and I can confirm that Closure will preserve the > public > variable's name, similar to how it preserves the names when we declare > public getters and setters. I'm going to make this change and turn off > warn-public-vars. > > (To be clear, I'm only going to change how the emitter handles public > variables specifically. Behavior for other types of property access > will > remain the same.) > > -- > Josh Tynjala > Bowler Hat LLC < > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbowlerhat.dev&data=02%7C01%7Caharui%40adobe.com%7Cbc8634d75ac34b1ff2a408d73acdc1c7%7Cfa7b1b5a7b34438794aed2c178decee1%7C0%7C0%7C637042527741705917&sdata=oIgajcsJSzyrmkeIOX%2BcuPe9lVt7iukyGAhrLdlVmvY%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 10:06 AM Alex Harui <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Feel free to revisit. IIRC, the issue is that you can't @export a > "var". > > You can only @export a function because @export sets up a reference > to the > > renamed function and you can't set up a reference to simple vars. > > > > Class Josh { > > Static var foo:int = 1; > > } > > > > Compiles to: > > > > Josh.foo = 1; > > > > Gets renamed to: > > > > a.b = 1; > > > > The @export will result in: > > > > ['Josh']['foo'] = a.b; > > > > And then code that does: > > > > Josh.foo = 2; > > > > Will not change > > > > Console.log(a.b); // 1 (not 2) > > > > Of course, I could be wrong.. > > > > -Alex > > > > On 9/16/19, 9:57 AM, "Josh Tynjala" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > I guess I was assuming that @nocollapse combined with @export > would > > make it > > also prevent renaming. I suppose I can test it and see what > happens. > > > > -- > > Josh Tynjala > > Bowler Hat LLC < > > > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbowlerhat.dev&data=02%7C01%7Caharui%40adobe.com%7Cbc8634d75ac34b1ff2a408d73acdc1c7%7Cfa7b1b5a7b34438794aed2c178decee1%7C0%7C0%7C637042527741715916&sdata=RzTt0oXl8VlOFQx61iqQmpTnZjzRQ83WA0nhC14VaBU%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 9:54 AM Alex Harui > <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > IMO, the -warn-public-vars is more about the "renaming" > mentioned in > > that > > > link than the "collapse". > > > > > > If you have: > > > > > > Package { > > > Class Josh { > > > Public var name:String; > > > } > > > Var foo:Josh = new Josh(); > > > foo.name = 'josh'; > > > > > > I don't think @nocollapse will prevent renaming the 'name' > property > > to > > > something random like 'jt': > > > > > > Var foo = new Josh(); > > > foo.jt = 'josh'; > > > > > > AIUI, @nocollapse is used for things that are not obviously > > mutable. If > > > you look in the globals in the browser debugger for any > js-debug > > version of > > > a Royale app, you can see the structure: > > > > > > org.apache.royale.core > > > > > > It was created by code similar to: > > > > > > window.org = {}; > > > window.org.apache = {}; > > > window.org.apache.royale = {}; > > > window.org.apache.royale.core = {}; > > > > > > Then some class gets added: > > > > > > window.org.apache.royale.core.UIBase = function ()... > > > > > > And some static might get added to that: > > > > > > window.org.apache.royale.core.UIBase.FOO = "BAR"; > > > > > > Closure will collapse org.apache.royale.core to just something > like > > "bb" > > > in the js-release output. And that means that code that sets > > UIBase.FOO > > > will break because there won't be an org.apache.royale.core > > structure. > > > AIUI, nocollapse would prevent collapsing that structure, but > won't > > prevent > > > UIBase and FOO from being renamed. And the renaming mainly > causes > > problems > > > when deserializing data structures coming from a server or > other > > external > > > source. > > > > > > Of course, I could be wrong... > > > -Alex > > > > > > On 9/16/19, 9:07 AM, "Josh Tynjala" <[email protected] > > > > wrote: > > > > > > I was looking through the Closure compiler annotations, > and I > > noticed > > > @nocollapse: > > > > > > Denotes a property that should not be collapsed by the > compiler > > into a > > > > variable. The primary use for @nocollapse is to allow > > exporting of > > > mutable > > > > properties. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fgoogle%2Fclosure-compiler%2Fwiki%2FAnnotating-JavaScript-for-the-Closure-Compiler%23nocollapse&data=02%7C01%7Caharui%40adobe.com%7Cbc8634d75ac34b1ff2a408d73acdc1c7%7Cfa7b1b5a7b34438794aed2c178decee1%7C0%7C0%7C637042527741715916&sdata=ec7%2Fx1T5lrVGtX8%2BhsScOgeJ18JTrfe8lbk0rm%2BrqUE%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > > Isn't this collapsing behavior the reason why we needed to > add > > > -warn-public-vars? > > > > > > -- > > > Josh Tynjala > > > Bowler Hat LLC < > > > > > > https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbowlerhat.dev&data=02%7C01%7Caharui%40adobe.com%7Cbc8634d75ac34b1ff2a408d73acdc1c7%7Cfa7b1b5a7b34438794aed2c178decee1%7C0%7C0%7C637042527741715916&sdata=RzTt0oXl8VlOFQx61iqQmpTnZjzRQ83WA0nhC14VaBU%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
