December 2022 Traits and Components
In this blog, we are going to discuss about how we can use a strict type as a trait or as a component in any other type. We will also discuss the differences between these two usages.
After we removed the implement keyword and overloaded that behavior to has keyword, we need a new way to identify whether the type used as a member is intended as a trait or a component at the parser level. For example, see the below code snippet.
Calculator.strict
has App
has file
...
Type Calculator has two members App and file and both types are traits(no implementation provided for the methods). Out of these two, we cannot infer that App type is used as a trait and this program type should implement the Run method from the App type. Also, file type is a component to this type and all the public methods and members of the file type will be used in this program.
Trait
In order to differentiate these two type usages, we have come up with a new rule and this also helps the parser to treat the types as per the intended usage. The new rule is if all of the member type methods are implemented in the current type, then it means that member type is used as a trait.
Example program for member used as a Trait
ConsoleApp.strict
has App
has log
Run
log.Write(6)
In this example, Run method of the type App member is implemented in the ConsoleApp.strict. With this, compiler now can automatically interpret App member is used as a trait.
Component
On the other side, if no methods of the member are implemented in the current type, then it is automatically interpreted that member type will be a component to this current type and all of it's methods are available for the usage. One more syntax that denotes that the type is used as a component is initializing the member with the constructor parameters. In these cases, compiler will allow the program to get parsed without errors and let the runtime figure out which instance type should be injected as a dependency for this component type member.
Example program for member used as a Component
TextContentPublisher.strict
has File = "test.txt"
ReadAndPublish Text
Publish(File.Read())
In this example, File member methods are not implemented rather Read method is used inside ReadAndPublish method. Therefore, it is clear now that File member is used as a component in TextContentPublisher type.
Usage Not Allowed
One case which is not allowed in this rule is partially implementing the member type methods. This will create confusion in deciding the member usage, hence it is not allowed and the parser will throw an exception to ask the user to implement missing methods of the member type. The below example program demonstrates this invalid case.
CsvFile.strict
has File
Read Text
constant openedFile = FileStream.OpenFile
return openedFile
In this example, CsvFile type implemented Read method but missed to implement Lenght, Write and Delete methods. Therefore, this is not allowed and the compiler will throw an exception in this case.