Digital Mars - digitalmars.D.bugs - [Issue 2050] New: interfaces should allow final methods with body

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050

           Summary: interfaces should allow final methods with body
           Product: D
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: DMD
        AssignedTo: bugzilla digitalmars.com
        ReportedBy: andrei metalanguage.com


Consider:

interface Foo
{
    void bar();
    final void baz() { bar; bar; }
}

This code doesn't go through on grounds that interfaces cannot define methods
with bodies. In fact, final methods don't break any laws of nature because they
are not meant to be overriden and, aside from lookup, have the regime of
ordinary functions.

It would appear that this issue is easy to mitigate:

interface Foo
{
    void bar();
}

void baz(Foo foo) { foo.bar; foo.bar; }

Generally I favor free functions so I'd be happy with the above. But there are
two troublesome scenarios:

1. Operators must be members

2. Sutter's NVI idiom (http://www.gotw.ca/publications/mill18.htm) can be
implemented more clearly with members than with virtual functions. There are a
couple of other bugs applying to NVI in D as well, that I'll post later.


--

Apr 27 2008

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050





------- Comment #1 from wbaxter gmail.com  2008-04-28 02:07 -------
That would open the door to the dreaded diamond pattern.

You'd just have the compiler generate ambiguity errors in those cases I
suppose?


--

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050





------- Comment #2 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 02:21 -------
(In reply to comment #1)
 That would open the door to the dreaded diamond pattern.
 
 You'd just have the compiler generate ambiguity errors in those cases I
 suppose?


The diamond pattern can't occur in schemes with single inheritance of
implementation.


--

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → Robert Fraser <fraserofthenight gmail.com> writes:

d-bugmail puremagic.com wrote:
 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050
 
 
 
 
 
 ------- Comment #2 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 02:21 -------
 (In reply to comment #1)
 That would open the door to the dreaded diamond pattern.

 You'd just have the compiler generate ambiguity errors in those cases I
 suppose?


 The diamond pattern can't occur in schemes with single inheritance of
 implementation.


That's true, but the purpose of interfaces is to allow for multiple 
inheritance in a safe way. Say you have two interfaces, IZombie from 
Library A and IPirate from Library B. You have a class ZombiePirate that 
implements both these interfaces. Right now, IZombie has a final method 
"dance()", and IPirate has the dance() method as virtual. All is well, 
since a call to an instance's dance() method would result in 
IZombie.dance()'s implementation being called. But if IPirate suddenly 
got a dance() implementation, your code would break simply by updating 
Library B.

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050


aarti interia.pl changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |aarti interia.pl




------- Comment #3 from aarti interia.pl  2008-04-28 03:56 -------
It seems that same rationale applies to static functions in interfaces.
Currently below code doesn't work, as static functions can not have body in
interface.

---
int a;
interface A {
  static int number() {
    return a;
  }
}
---

Current situation is just plainly wrong as it is possible to put static
functions into interfaces and it is not possible to use them at all - linker
error is emitted during compilation (what is understandable as static functions
are not virtual).


--

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → Robert Fraser <fraserofthenight gmail.com> writes:

d-bugmail puremagic.com wrote:
 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050
 
 
 aarti interia.pl changed:
 
            What    |Removed                     |Added
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  CC|                            |aarti interia.pl
 
 
 
 
 ------- Comment #3 from aarti interia.pl  2008-04-28 03:56 -------
 It seems that same rationale applies to static functions in interfaces.
 Currently below code doesn't work, as static functions can not have body in
 interface.
 
 ---
 int a;
 interface A {
   static int number() {
     return a;
   }
 }
 ---
 
 Current situation is just plainly wrong as it is possible to put static
 functions into interfaces and it is not possible to use them at all - linker
 error is emitted during compilation (what is understandable as static functions
 are not virtual).


You should be able to call them on the interface: If you have:

class B : A {}

void main()
{
     A a = new B();
     B b = new B();

     A.number(); // Should work fine, so here's the bug
     a.number(); // Maybe should work....?
     b.number(); // Should NOT work
}

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050





------- Comment #6 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 11:12 -------
(In reply to comment #5)
 d-bugmail puremagic.com wrote:
 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050
 
 
 
 
 
 ------- Comment #2 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 02:21 -------
 (In reply to comment #1)
 That would open the door to the dreaded diamond pattern.

 You'd just have the compiler generate ambiguity errors in those cases I
 suppose?


 The diamond pattern can't occur in schemes with single inheritance of
 implementation.


 That's true, but the purpose of interfaces is to allow for multiple 
 inheritance in a safe way. Say you have two interfaces, IZombie from 
 Library A and IPirate from Library B. You have a class ZombiePirate that 
 implements both these interfaces. Right now, IZombie has a final method 
 "dance()", and IPirate has the dance() method as virtual. All is well, 
 since a call to an instance's dance() method would result in 
 IZombie.dance()'s implementation being called. But if IPirate suddenly 
 got a dance() implementation, your code would break simply by updating 
 Library B.


Such cases would be flagged as ambiguous.


--

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → Robert Fraser <fraserofthenight gmail.com> writes:

d-bugmail puremagic.com wrote:
 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050
 
 
 
 
 
 ------- Comment #6 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 11:12 -------
 (In reply to comment #5)
 d-bugmail puremagic.com wrote:
 http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050





 ------- Comment #2 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 02:21 -------
 (In reply to comment #1)
 That would open the door to the dreaded diamond pattern.

 You'd just have the compiler generate ambiguity errors in those cases I
 suppose?


 implementation.


 inheritance in a safe way. Say you have two interfaces, IZombie from 
 Library A and IPirate from Library B. You have a class ZombiePirate that 
 implements both these interfaces. Right now, IZombie has a final method 
 "dance()", and IPirate has the dance() method as virtual. All is well, 
 since a call to an instance's dance() method would result in 
 IZombie.dance()'s implementation being called. But if IPirate suddenly 
 got a dance() implementation, your code would break simply by updating 
 Library B.


 Such cases would be flagged as ambiguous.


Right, but the ambiguity would be caused at no fault of the code being 
compiled, but because something changed in a different module. In many 
ways, it's similar to hijacking.

Apr 28 2008

↑ ↓ ← → d-bugmail puremagic.com writes:

http://d.puremagic.com/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2050





------- Comment #7 from andrei metalanguage.com  2008-04-28 11:14 -------
(In reply to comment #3)
 It seems that same rationale applies to static functions in interfaces.


I agree.


--

Apr 28 2008