Enforce some const-safety at compile time

ID:1761463
 
Jan 13 2015, 12:11 am
Applies to:DM Language
Status: Open
Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
Take this code for example:
/proc/testing()
    world.xyzzy = 99
    world.loop_checks = 42
    return

The second line throws a compile error since xyzzy is not defined, but the third line will only error at runtime.

Considering the compiler knows about const-ness in some way, and already checks all var accesses with "." to make sure they're defined, would it be feasible to check if they're consts there as well?
Jan 13 2015, 11:22 am
loop_checks isn't const; it's simply compile-time only.
Jan 13 2015, 7:16 pm
Alright. In that case it might be an even better example of something that could be checked for legality at compile-time, instead of at runtime.
Jan 14 2015, 5:15 am
Honestly, I think this kind of check would only burden the compiler. Maybe as an option it could be useful, if you wanted to be absolutely sure everything was legit, but otherwise big projects would just take a lot longer to compile.
Jan 14 2015, 9:32 am
Yeah, agreed there. A --strict or whatever option with more checks like this could be useful, especially for smaller projects and travis builds.
Jan 14 2015, 10:00 am
Even as an option this would slow down the compiler when it's not used; the if statement needed to check on it would always have to run, if nothing else.