lang: ast, parser, interfaces: Implementation of nested class sugar

This implements a new type of syntactic sugar for the common pattern of
a base class which returns a child class, and so on. Instead of needing
to repeatedly indent the child classes, we can instead prefix them at
the definition site (where created with the class keyword) with the name
of the parent class, followed by a colon, to get the desired embedded
sugar.

For example, instead of writing:

class base() {
	class inner() {
		class deepest() {
		}
	}
}

You can instead write:

class base() {
}
class base:inner() {
}
class base:inner:deepest() {
}

Of course, you can only access any of the inner classes by first
including (with the include keyword) a parent class, and then
subsequently including the inner one.
This commit is contained in:
James Shubin
2024-01-12 17:49:53 -05:00
parent 741a71b490
commit aae0e16350
9 changed files with 235 additions and 3 deletions

View File

@@ -402,6 +402,38 @@ time.
Recursive classes are not currently supported and it is not clear if they will
be in the future. Discussion about this topic is welcome on the mailing list.
A class names can contain colons to indicate it is nested inside of the class in
the same scope which is named with the prefix indicated by colon separation.
Instead of needing to repeatedly indent the child classes, we can instead prefix
them at the definition site (where created with the class keyword) with the name
of the parent class, followed by a colon, to get the desired embedded sugar.
For example, instead of writing:
```mcl
class base() {
class inner() {
class deepest() {
}
}
}
```
You can instead write:
```mcl
class base() {
}
class base:inner() {
}
class base:inner:deepest() {
}
```
Of course, you can only access any of the inner classes by first including
(with the include keyword) a parent class, and then subsequently including the
inner one.
#### Include
The `include` statement causes the previously defined class to produce the
@@ -553,6 +585,10 @@ and can be used for other scenarios in which one statement or expression would
be better represented by a larger AST. Most nodes in the AST simply return their
own node address, and do not modify the AST.
This stage also implements the class nesting when it finds class names with
colons that should be nested inside of a base class. Currently this does modify
the AST for efficiency and simplicity.
#### Scope propagation
Scope propagation passes the parent scope (starting with the top-level, built-in