andrenth
Hello
I’ve done some Erlang a long time ago and now I’m returning to the platform via Elixir. One the few things syntax-wise that I feel is sub-optimal is how you call Erlang functions, i.e., :module.function(...). It just looks a bit odd to me, although I do understand why it is this way.
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could use the same transformation done in keyword lists ([{:foo => 1}] being the same as [foo: 1]) and call module:function(...) instead, just like in Erlang? ![]()
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Qqwy
I have an alternative for you:
yurko
Keyword lists are lists of tuples, so it’s
[{:foo, 1}],[foo: 1] == [{:foo, 1}]. A bit confusing yeah, so my vote is leave it be and add no sugar, it’s not healthyandrenth
Yeah, I should have said “inspired by” and not “the same” transformation done for keyword lists.
andrenth
It would actually be pretty nice if all Erlang functions came wrapped in an
Erlmodule or something.voughtdq
Erlang does have quoting:
I’m not sure what the Elixir parser would do with this AST though.
hauleth
Why and how would you do that in case of non-core modules? Like
poolboy?andrenth
Well in that case you wouldn’t, of course, unless there’s something that adds the alias mentioned by @Qqwy automatically.
I still think being able to call
poolboy:foo(...)instead of:poolboy.foo(...)would make erlang calls feel less second-class.It’s not like this is super important, it’s just an idea I had that I thought would be neat.
hauleth
The point is that the current syntax is in par with the whole rest of the language, as
Foo.bar()is the same as:'Elixir.Foo'.bar()(with exception for the aliases). So adding new call syntax would mean thatFoo:bar()also would became valid call. While this could simplify some things (it would provide difference between function call and map access) I think it would be too confusing, especially asfoo. bar()is valid syntax andfoo: bar()will not be.