[RFC] standardize constructors as: Foo.New(args) instead of newFoo(args)

[timotheecour]

motivation

this is the analog of https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim/issues/7430 (universal conversion operator (cf D's a.to!T) (std.conv.to)) but for constructors.

similar motivation as:
https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/703 Constructors (and tiny bit of destructors)
https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1190/3 [RFC] Constructors proposition

in short: newFoo(args) is not generic (hard to use in generic code given a generic type), pollutes namespace, not standard (lots of languages don't need composite names).

options that have been considered as replacement for newFoo(args):

• Foo(args):
  Foo(args) is already used for explicit conversion, eg https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/1190/1#7342

• new Foo(args):
  eg proposed here: https://forum.nim-lang.org/t/703/1#3885

proc new Foo(x: int): Foo = Foo(x: x)
echo new Foo(123)

but that doesn't work as new Foo already has a meaning (GC allocation) and creates a ref Foo, not a Foo

My proposal is the following: Foo.New(args)

Here's an example:

type
  Foo=object
    age:int

#instead of: proc newBar(age:int): Bar = Bar(age:age)
proc New(T: typedesc[Foo], age:int): Foo = Foo(age:age)
let a=Foo.New(100)
assert a.type is Foo
assert a.age == 100

# eg showing generic use, which would be hard using newFoo syntax
let a2 = a5.type.New(101)
# eg showing it works if all we have is an alias
type FooAlias=Foo
let a3=FooAlias.New(100)

Advantages

• no new language support needed
• backward compatible (newFoo constructors can be changed gradually to Foo.New constructors, independently for each Foo)
• can be used in generic code
• no namespace pollution

another advantage is it allows to define constructors for multiple types, with just 1 definition, eg:

# for example
proc New(T: isSomeTypeConstraint, arg:typed): T = ...

note

as for name to use, this can be debated , eg: instead of New: make, create, ctor etc

[PMunch]

I like this idea of generic procedures, not sure why no-one has thought of this before. It solves the problem beautifully and is much more flexible than the current system. I'd love to see this, the to proposal, read from streams, and other similar cases get implemented across the stdlib before a 1.0 release. Would make everything much more consistent and nice and generic, plus it feels like much less of a hack.

[yglukhov]

I'm using somewhat similar approach in nimx, but with a twist that new does nothing except allocation and init. So View subclasses override their init. This is useful in case of class hierarchy when subclass.init needs to call super.init.

So to summarize what I'd want, is a new(t: typedesc[T], args: varargs[untyped]): (T or ref T) routine that would allocate + call init(result, args...).

[Araq]

Still has some of the disadvantages that I've described on the forum and these are not addressed in your proposal.

no new language support needed

Irrelevant without more justification of why that change is necessary in the first place.

backward compatible (newFoo constructors can be changed gradually to Foo.New constructors,

Irrelevant without more justification of why that change is necessary in the first place.

can be used in generic code

How so? You need to elaborate on this point with real use cases.

no namespace pollution

These new constructors would pollute the namespace in comparable ways.

[PMunch]

Simple example:

type
  Bar = object
    age: int
  Baz = object
    height: int

proc new(T: typedesc[Bar], age: int): Bar = Bar(age: age)
proc new(T: typedesc[Baz], height: int): Baz = Baz(height: height)

let a = Bar.new(100)

template newInst(old: untyped, ageOrHeight: int): untyped =
  old.type.new(ageOrHeight)

proc newInstProc(old: Bar | Baz, ageOrHeight: int): Bar | Baz =
  old.type.new(ageOrHeight)

let b = a.newInst(123)
let c = a.newInstProc(123)

Note that this trivial example is super dumb, but it's not impossible to imagine this being useful for lot's of other meta-programming cases, or just generic procedures as shown above. Doing what's done in the example today requires a macro that get's the type name and generates a call to new<typeName> which isn't very pretty.

As for namespace pollution I'd say having one name new reserved is better than having tons of new<whatever> procs floating around.

[Araq]

Note that this trivial example is super dumb, but it's not impossible to imagine this being useful for lot's of other meta-programming cases, or just generic procedures as shown above.

Well I asked for real use cases, not for toy examples.

[zah]

Personally, I think it would be nicer if we introduce a way to use the name of the type as a callable proc.

type Foo = object ...

# some magic goes here (perhaps defining an `=init` proc)

# construct instances as in Python
var f = Foo(10, 20)

Besides this, we can benefit from a "placement new" operator that places the return value of a call into a raw slot of memory. Then we can have custom alloc helpers that work like this:

template myAlloc(x: typed) = 
  type T = type(x)
  var mem = myAllocImpl(sizeof(T))
  mem <-- x # this the special "placement new" operator
            # but one could argue that the good old `mem[] = x` syntax
            # could work here without problems

# the usage looks like this
var f = myAlloc Foo(10, 20)

[yglukhov]

@Araq, here's a real-life use case:
implementation: https://github.com/yglukhov/nimx/blob/master/nimx/layout.nim
usage: https://github.com/yglukhov/nimx/blob/master/test/sample14_layout.nim#L85-L118

myWindow.makeLayout:
  - SplitView:
    ...
    - TableView:
      ...
    - View:
      ...

The makeLayout generates code that has SplitView.new(...), TableView.new(...), View.new(...), etc.

[PMunch]

@Araq, the same thing that @yglukhovs example does is what is done in the various genui macros. If this syntax was adopted those macros would be a lot easier to create.

[dom96]

The makeLayout generates code that has SplitView.new(...), TableView.new(...), View.new(...), etc.

You can easily generate newSplitView, newTableView, newView.

I also don't see a point in this, other than "it looks nicer". The convention for initFoo and newFoo has been with us for a while now, and I don't see a reason to change it.

Edit: Okay, I can see it composing better for generics. That is indeed an advantage. Not sure it's enough to warrant this sweeping change though.

[PMunch]

Yeah it's not particularly hard, it's just unnecessary. If you look at my above example you would be able to do things that was previously only achievable with a macro using only a simple template, or even a proc. This to me is enough of a benefit in it's own right.

As for if it's worth it for all the breakage it will cause I'd say so. None of the old code is going to break, it's not like "new" or "init" is going to stop working. So things can be updated at a leisurely pace. Whenever we get nim-format it could of course complain if you tried to name your proc initThis or newThat so to let people know not to use it anymore (as if deprecation warnings from the stdlib wasn't enough).

Nim is inching ever closer to that 1.0 release, and it should try to look as best as it can when it get's there. This solution definitely feels more thought through and "clean" as opposed to the old solution which always felt like a bit of a hack.

[yglukhov]

@dom96, there's also a problem with newFoo if you think of OOP.

type
  Foo = ref object of RootRef
  Bar = ref object of Foo

proc newFoo(): Foo =
  result.new()
  # ... initialize result

proc newBar(): Bar =
  result.new()
  # ... err, now how do I initialize Foo?

Surely, this is just a cosmetics question, and can be worked around. In my case I've just introduced new(v: typedesc[Foo]). I'm just saying that this newFoo convention is not as powerful/flexible as it could be.

[dom96]

@yglukhov sorry, but I don't understand your example. Can you elaborate?

@PMunch Even though it might not break anything, it will make a lot of code obsolete. Changing something like this, so close to v1.0 will mean that a lot of code out there will start showing deprecation warnings. Including most of the code from my book.

[PMunch]

What's worse though, being stuck with a bad design forever, or having a period of deprecation warnings close to 1.0? It's a shame about the book, but if we create a comprehensive style/syntax guide for the release of 1.0 I'd say it's fine, there is a disclaimer in the book about Nim being pre 1.0 isn't it? Besides, look at breaking changes between Python 2 and Python 3, breaking is normal for crossing version boundaries. And better to have them break before 1.0 than after.. And again, this doesn't even a real break.

[yglukhov]

@dom96, my example is about constructors in terms of OOP. If we treat newFoo as a constructor, there is no possibility to call it from subclass constructor. Does that make sense?

[dom96]

@yglukhov I understand now, it's not possible to do newFoo and then convert that to Bar I suppose. Makes sense.