Cheat sheet for annotations

[cristianoc]

Present a compact cheat sheet for decorators relevant for code generation. Here's a list of all decorators. Irrelevant ones to be removed:

• ~@@deprecated~
• ~@@warning~
• [x] @as only used for runtime representation, except for default arguments @as("someString") _
• [email protected]~
• ~@dead~
• ~@deprecated~
• ~@deriving~ About runtime representation
• ~@doesNotRaise~
• ~@genType~
• [x] @get
• [x] @get_index
• [x] @ignore
• ~@inline~
• ~@int~ not relevant: about runtime representation
• ~@live~
• ~@meth~ About runtime representation
• [x] @module
• [x] @new
• [x] @obj
• ~@raises~
• [email protected]~
• [ ] @return This mixes runtime representation and externals: a post-processing for results
• [x] @scope
• [x] @send
• [x] @set
• [x] @set_index
• ~@string~ not relevant: about runtime representation
• [ ] @this Requires annotations on both external and uses
• ~@unboxed~ About runtime representation
• [ ] @uncurry This guarantees that the curried function is treated as if it were uncurried
• [ ] @unwrap Unwraps one level of unary polymorphci variants (e.g. [#Int(int) | #Str(string)]). Should probably be a language-level feature either<(int, string)>.
• [x] @val
• [?] @variadic Should this be a language-level feature?

A few examples covered:

// @val
// external setTimeout: (unit => unit, int) => timeoutID = "setTimeout"
external setTimeout: (unit => unit, int) => timeoutID = "setTimeout($1, $2)"

// @get external getName: window => string = "name"
external getName: window => string = "$1.name"

// @set external setName: (window, string) => unit = "name"
external setName: (window, string) => unit = "$1.name = $2"

// @get_index external get: (t, string) => int = ""
external get: (t, string) => int = "$1[$2]"

// @set_index external set: (t, string, int) => unit = ""
external set: (t, string, int) => unit = "$1[$2] = $3"

// @module("path")
// external dirname: string => string = "dirname"
external dirname: string => string = "import(path).dirname($1)"

// @new external create: unit => t = "Date"
external create: unit => t = "new Date()"

// @send external getElementById: (document, string) => Dom.element = "getElementById"
external getElementById: (document, string) => Dom.element = "$1.getElementById($2)"

// @module("library-x")
// @val external doStuff: (@as(json`{format:"utf8", includeStuff: false}`) _, string) => string = "doStuff"
external doStuff: string => string = "import(library-x).doStuff({format: 'utf8', includeStuff: false}, $1)"

// @val external doSomething: (@ignore 'a, 'a) => unit = "doSomething"
external doSomething: ('a, 'a) => unit = "doSomething($2)"

// @obj
// external action: (~name: string, unit) => _ = ""
external action: (~name: string, unit) => _ = "{name:$1}"

// @scope("Math") @val
// external floor: float => int = "floor"
external floor: float => int = "Math.floor($1)"

[cristianoc]

How to describe the difference between @scope and @module ?

[IwanKaramazow]

I didn't know, but are the $1, $2 placeholder a thing?

[cristianoc]

Just a compact notation to describe what the examples do. But once all the uses of attributes are lined out, it might suggest a decent universal representation.

[cristianoc]

Looks like @variadic can be moved to the language in principle e.g. little prototype: https://github.com/rescript-lang/rescript-compiler/issues/5727

So it becomes about runtime representation and not about FFI.

[cristianoc]

Just used import(-) to mark @module things. Just as a notation to differentiate from @scope. And removed @variadic. This gives a pretty small, self-contained set of things that can be expressed.

[IwanKaramazow]

Since import wasn't well received, a couple of ideas for importing values from javascript:

external "path" {
  dirname: string => string,
  renameSync as rename: (string, string) => string,
  "weird identifier" as ident: unit => unit
}

// entire module contents
external "leftPad" {
  * as leftPad: (string, int) => string
}

// import default export
external "./modules/school.js" {
  default as schoolName: string,
}
// or simply: (this could be too much)
external "./modules/school.js" as schoolName: string

[ryyppy]

@cristianoc is this issue about having a separate page that lists all possible constructs in one example? Or are you talking about extending our syntax lookup, that lists all the decorators already?

[cristianoc]

@cristianoc is this issue about having a separate page that lists all possible constructs in one example? Or are you talking about extending our syntax lookup, that lists all the decorators already?

This is not necessarily about description only. It could be a different way to express FFI in future. Perhaps not super relevant for the doc site right now.

[cristianoc]

A few additional comments from discussions with folks

@val standalone binds to globals. But in any recent JS version you wouldn’t need that anymore. There’s a global object now

I’m not sure how useful @this is. Binding to modern libraries that use OOP is a challenge. A mere @this might not be enough anyway

I’m not sure @scope is needed because we can just special-case a few built-ins like Math and others in @module