PROPOSAL: Language Escape Operator

[Bruce Chapman]

rssh at gradsoft.com.ua wrote:
> 1.  But feature without 'semantic' of use is quite useless. I. e. until
> processing of 'escaped part' in java program is not standardized, I will
> be able redistribute and show such code only with knowledge about extra
> tools and how they are applied.
>   
"Code"  which uses the escaped part is not Java code. It is a mix of 
java code and something else. It has no meaning as a purely java program 
- thus it would at least be immoral to use ".java" file extension. It 
has meaning only in the context of some external tool, or externally 
defined mechanism.  In some ways it makes no more sense to describe the 
semantics of the escaped part than it does to describe the semantics of 
a String literal's content.

In the particular proof of concept I have used as an example, the escape 
part is only visible when looking at the IDE, it is a complex series of 
linked folds. To distribute this in a form where the escape operator was 
visible you would need something like a screen shot image - in which 
case it would be obvious that you were not looking at complete code. The 
source file in that case would not contain the escape operator, just 
pure java code, and distributing it would be no different from when the 
tool was not being used.

>   I.e. to be practical, at least process of defining and applying such
> extra tools must be described somewhere. (something like call of
> annotation processing interface from compiler)
>   
The "semantics of use" with respect to the java language and compiler 
are defined in the proposal. It is quite simply a compiler error.

How tools choose to use this is beyond the scope of the java language 
specification, but for an example see the referenced proof of concept. I 
very deliberately have absolutely no intention of dictating how such a 
feature should be used by tools outside of the language. I merely wish 
to reserve the opportunity for them to do something - anything if it is 
of value.
> 2. Yet one linked 'bug' in JLS: Behaviour of java compiler is not defined
> at all. (Annotation processing is described in man page, not in JLS
> itself, so, strictly it's not part of Java language)
>   
True, it is not part of the language but it is a part of the java 
platform because it is described in javax.annotation.processing package 
and the platform documentation for the javac compiler says that it is an 
annotation processor.

If you are having trouble understanding - please see my previous post 
(approx 4 hours earlier) for links to some more background material. I 
am aware that I am "going meta" somewhat here and it might be difficult 
to understand. Believe me I have struggled to find ways to explain it. 
If I need to struggle harder, please ask and I'll do my best.


Bruce

- SNIP -