> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Jon Zeppieri > Sent: 11. april 2008 09:50 > > ... > The question is: why not apply it to classes, too? > > By the way, I was wrong about the grammar allowing > > var public::count = ... > > in classes. It doesn't. But why not allow it there and consider it > canonical? (Doesn't 'var' also indicate that the property is a > fixture in a class definition, too? It's not part of the name, > anyway.)
One motivation is that programmers are likely to prefer the Java-like syntax where the namespace (in its role as access control) shows up early: public var count = private var key = I really think this is the "right" syntax for variables. The syntax var private::key, private::foo, public::x, private::bar; is certainly workable and unambiguous but public var x; private var key, foo, bar; works better for me, because the access control is visible and separated from the names, because each phrase is shorter, and because I'm guaranteed to separate my privates from my publics. Classes are sort of funny since you can consider a property name in a class both as a property on the instance (o.id) but also just as a scoped variable, inside all the methods of the class. If you're *really* into Java the former case disappears completely because there will be getter/setter pairs for everything ;) so the "scoped variable" case is completely dominant. I'm not sure that's wrong, and I think a variable declaration syntax is more natural than an object property syntax. (The syntax of field names in object initializers, on the other hand, is a consequence of how that syntax has evolved.) Matters of taste? To an extent. But preserving "brain print" from other languages (Java, Python) is not unimportant, it's one of the principles that have been used in designing the language. --lars _______________________________________________ Es4-discuss mailing list Es4-discuss@mozilla.org https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/es4-discuss
