[Grace-core] Visibility of variables and constants in Objects

[Andrew P. Black]

On 3 Jul 2013, at 02:27 , James Noble wrote:

>   method p {1} 
> 
> should be replaceable by
> 
>   var p = 1
>   def p = 1
>   var p = 1 is readable
>   var p = 1 is public
>   var p = 1 is readable, public
> 
> (assuming the program has no definition of a p:= method)
> 
> without changing the semantics of the program - even in the presence of inheritance

Why do you think that you should be able to change the program without changing it's meaning?

The only place where I expect that sort of behavior is when we define one thing as an abbreviation for another.  So I would expect to be able to replace a class definition by a nested object definition without changing the meaning, because we define it that way.

Similarly, I view

	def x is publiclyReadable = 1

as meaning

	def _x = 1
	method x {_x}

so I would expect to be able to replace either of these by the other without changing the meaning, assuming that _x is actually a fresh name.

> this is currently caught by "no shadowing" - the program should be rejected.

I was under the impression that Michael convinced us that the no shadowing rule was impractical and that we threw it out.  Maybe my memory is faulty?

	Andrew