Informal specification of the optional const feature.

optional-const.md

This document is now obsolete, please refer to the current version.

Optional const

Author: eernst@.

Version: 0.1 (2017-08-10)

Status: Under discussion

This document is an informal specification of the optional const feature. The feature adds support for omitting the reserved word const in list and map literals and constant object expressions, in locations where const is currently required.

This informal specification is built on a combined proposal which presents optional const and several other features.

Motivation

In Dart without optional const, complex constant expressions often contain many occurrences of const on list and map literals, and on constant object expressions. Subexpressions of constant expressions are themselves required to be constant expressions, and this means that const on a nested list or map literal provides no extra information: It is a compile-time error if that const is omitted. Similarly, it is a compile-time error if a nested constant object expression is modified to use new rather than const. In that situation it carries no extra information whether new or const is used, and it is even possible to omit the reserved word entirely. It is also required for certain other expressions to be constant, e.g., default values on formal parameters and initializing expressions for constant variables.

In all these cases the presence of const is required, and hence such a const may be inferred by compilers and similar tools if it is omitted.

Developers reading the source code are likely to find it easy to understand that a required const was omitted and is implied, because the reason for the requirement is visible in the enclosing syntax: The expression where const is inferred is a subexpression of an expression with const, it is used to initialize a constant variable, or it is a default value for a formal parameter.

In summary, tools do not need the required occurrences of const, and they are also unimportant for developers. Conversely, omitting required occurrences of const will sometimes make large expressions substantially more concise and readable, and also more convenient to write. Here is an example:

const myMap = const {
  "a": const [const C("able"), const C("apple"), const C("axis")],
  "b": const [const C("banana"), const C("bold"), const C("burglary")],
};

Removing the required occurrences of const yields the following:

const myMap = {
  "a": [C("able"), C("apple"), C("axis")],
  "b": [C("banana"), C("bold"), C("burglary")],
};

This proposal specifies that these previously required occurrences of const can be omitted, and will then be inferred.

For a more detailed discussion and motivation, please consult the combined proposal which covers optional const as well as several other proposals. That document was the starting point for this informal specification.

Syntax

In order to support the optional const feature, the Dart grammar is modified as follows.

postfixExpression ::=
    assignableExpression postfixOperator |
    constructorInvocation |  // NEW
    primary selector*
constructorInvocation ::=  // NEW
    typeName typeArguments '.' identifier arguments
assignableExpression ::=
    SUPER unconditionalAssignableSelector |
    typeName typeArguments '.' identifier arguments (arguments* assignableSelector)+ |  // NEW
    identifier |
    primary (arguments* assignableSelector)+

A complete grammar which includes these changes is available here.

Note that the alternative which is added in the rule for assignableExpression is required in order to allow expressions which are obtained by constructing a constant object expression in Dart without optional const and removing the const. That particular case will not match any of the cases where the const is required (because assignableExpression is only used in contexts which cannot be constant expressions). However, this approach yields syntactic support for omitting const in every constantObjectExpression, and it also allows for omitting new from every newExpression, which is useful for the associated optional new feature.

The grammar only needs to be adjusted for one case, namely invocations of named constructors for generic classes. In this case we can derive expressions like const Foo<int>.bar(), and the corresponding Foo<int>.bar() is not derivable in the same situations where the variant with const can be derived. In other words, we must add support for constructs like Foo<int>.bar() as part of a postfixExpression and as part of an assignableExpression. For all other situations, the variant with const becomes a construct which is already syntactically correct Dart when the const is removed. For instance const C(42) becomes C(42) which could already be a function invocation and is hence already allowed syntactically.

Static analysis

We specify a type directed source code transformation which eliminates the feature. The static analysis proceeds to work on the transformed program.

This means that the feature is "sugar", but because of the need to refer to types it could be described as static semantic sugar rather than syntactic sugar. We do not specify the dynamic semantics for this feature, because the feature is eliminated in this transformation step.

An expression on one of the following forms must be modified to be or contain a constantObjectExpression as described:

With a postfixExpression e,

• if e is on the form constructorInvocation, i.e., typeName typeArguments '.' identifier arguments then replace e by 'const' typeName typeArguments '.' identifier arguments.
• if e is on the form typeIdentifier arguments where typeIdentifier denotes a class then replace e by 'const' typeIdentifier arguments.
• if e is on the form identifier1 '.' identifier2 arguments where identifier1 denotes a class and identifier2 is the name of a named constructor in that class, or identifier1 denotes a prefix for a library L and identifier2 denotes a class exported by L, replace e by 'const' identifier1 '.' identifier2 arguments.
• if e is on the form identifier1 '.' typeIdentifier '.' identifier2 arguments where identifier1 denotes a library prefix for a library L, typeIdentifier denotes a class C exported by L, and identifier2 is the name of a named constructor in C, replace e by 'const' identifier1 '.' typeIdentifier '.' identifier2 arguments.

In short, in these specific situations: "just add const". It is easy to verify that each of the replacements can be derived from constObjectExpression, which can be derived from postfixExpression via primary selector*; hence the transformation preserves syntactic correctness.

The remaining static analysis proceeds to work on the transformed program.

It is possible that this transformation will create constObjectExpressions which violate the constraints on constant object expressions. It is recommended that the error messages emitted by tools in response to such violations include information about the transformative step that added this const to the given construct and informs developers that they may add new explicitly if that matches the intention.

Dynamic Semantics

There is no dynamic semantics to specify for this feature because it is eliminated by code transformation.

Revisions

0.1 (2017-08-10) Stand-alone proposal for optional const created, using version 0.8 of the combined proposal optional-new-const.md as the starting point.