Re: suggestions for newbee

Hi David, and welcome in the community!

Some answers in addition to Artem's ones.

> * remove 'var' and 'let'. If 'let' is to define constantes (!= 
> immutable) then every constantes have name in uppercase (only), and 
> variable start by lowercase. Compiler could automaticaly detect this and 
> choose internaly between 'var' and 'let' rules.

One of the benefits of 'var' and 'let' is to allow local variable definitions 
where the compiler automatically guesses the variable's type (a form of type 
inference). You couldn't have that with the lowercase/uppercase convention only.

> * Why 'Type Inference' isn't systematic, and can't be use for arrays ? 
> Could you give me samples ?

Type inference means that the compiler "guesses" a type, instead of requiring 
it to specify it. It happens in several situations in Nice:

let x = "..."; // x has type String

let l = new ArrayList();
// l has type ArrayList<T> for some T which will be discovered later

let f = int x => x.toString();
// f is a function of type int->String

Where did you read it cannot be used for arrays? This should be fixed, because 
you can:

let a = [1, 2, 3];
// a is an int[]


> * like generate a default Constructor, why not generate default 
> implementation for toString() (e.g. generate a string following the 
> format of JSON http://www.json.org) and equals() comparison by fields 
> (usefull for test) ?

Given the somewhat arbitary default implementation of toString, and that it is 
commonly used for debugging, I suppose a more friendly implementation of 
toString would be useful. The only downside could be slightly larger classes, 
but the overhead should be pretty small.

equals is a bit more tricky, because it is more likely to change the behaviour 
of the program. There are also decisions to make like shallow vs deep 
comparison (and with deep, there is the use of cycles). So maybe this could be 
done only explicitely, for instance if the class implements a certain flag 
interface (ShallowEquals, DeepEquals, ...).

> I'm a newbee in compilation and language developpement, but I could try 
> to help you develop nice.

Thanks! Have a look at 
http://nice.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Doc/GetInvolved and let us know 
if you have ideas what you would like to work on. The default implementation 
of toString you proposed could be another good way to get started.

In any case, please keep in touch, so that we know how you are doing and so 
that we can help.

Daniel



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