Joel asked: Can your language do this?

'Josh' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 04:42:18 GMT, sez:

I wonder how many people played with this after Joel's post :)

Two things though - Java is VERY statically typed. It's JavaScript that isn't and they're quite different.

Secondly, you can actually type your anonymous delegate on the fly, i.e.:

new D<string>(delegate(string s) {...

can be replaced with just

delegate(string s) provided the sigs match.

Keep up the great work.

Josh

'Wesner Moise' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 04:58:06 GMT, sez:

C# syntax is nearly as compact as Javascript, save for typed parameters.

Some caveats:
1)Generics is not necessary at all
2)String concatenation works with any object (as long as one of the parameters is a string)
3)Anonymous delegates are implicitly cast to the right delegate type (so you never need to add a cast).

void Cook( object i1, object i2, Action(object) f )
{
alert("get the " + i1);
f(i1);
f(i2);
}

Cook( "lobster",
"water",
delegate(x) { MessageBox.Show("put " + x + " in pot"); } );
Cook( "chicken",
"coconut",
delegate(x) { MessageBox.Show("boom boom the " + x); } );

Alternatively, you can use a delegate and DynamicInvoke for latebinding:
void Cook( object i1, object i2, Delegate f )
{
alert("get the " + i1);
f.DynamicInvoke(i1);
f.DynamicInvoke(i2);
}

'Wesner Moise' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 05:01:05 GMT, sez:

Some errors in my last post:
1) Use delegate(object x) { ... } since all parameters require a type.
2) alert needs to be replaced with MessageBox.Show()

'Christian' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 05:26:52 GMT, sez:

Ruby can:

----
def Cook( i1, i2 )
puts "get the #{i1}"
yield(i1)
yield(i2)
end

Cook( "lobster", "water") { |x| puts("put #{x} in pot") }
Cook( "chicken", "coconut") { |x| puts("boom boom the #{x}") }
----

'lb' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:49:25 GMT, sez:

@Josh, re "Java is VERY statically typed. It's JavaScript that isn't"

sorry Josh, just a typo on my part. fixed.

also @Josh:
I took out the "new D<string>(" bit... yes glad that works without it. I originally had it all quite a bit more over wrought again.

I'm growing to like the way the code looks now.

@wesner:
i originally had f.DynamicInvoke -- except i found i had to wrap the args in an object array -- something like

f.DynamicInvoke(new object[]() = {i1});

how yucky is that?

re:"alert needs to be replaced with MessageBox.Show()"

...or abstracted out:

private void alert(string s) {
MessageBox.Show(s)
}

;-)

@christian: yes yes, we all know ruby is beautifully elegant. Thank you for sharing though -- i was pretty keen to find the ruby syntax for this kind of activity. whenever i see the |x| type syntax i think of 'why the lucky stiff' describing it as a little tube that the parameter slides down on its way into the block...

cheers
lb

'WaterBreath' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:20:33 GMT, sez:

@Christian and lb: I actually would not describe the Ruby syntax as particularly elegant, though it is certainly concise. The reason I would not use the word "elegant" is that although the syntax is very compact, it seems not very mathematical.

The reason I say this is that the anonymous function (called by the "yield" keyword) doesn't quite appear and work like a normal function argument, for two reasons: 1) it has it's own place, outside the argument list and 2) you need a special (and ambiguous) keyword to reference it. (I say it's ambiguous because the first time I saw "yield", I assumed it meant the same thing as "return". Though I understand now that it references the current method "yielding control" to the other block.)

Then there's the fact that the Pragmatic guys, in "Programming Ruby" say it should not be thought of as an argument:

"Some people like to think of the association of a block with a method as a kind of parameter passing. This works on one level, but it isn't really the whole story. You might be better off thinking of the block and the method as coroutines, which transfer control back and forth between themselves."
(found here: http://www.rubycentral.com/book/intro.html)

And if it's not intended to work like a parameter, then it really is not-mathematical. Convenient, yes. Concise, yes. But IMHO it's no more elegant than the slightly more verbose but mathematical C# syntax Mr. Moise posted.

'J' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:50:34 GMT, sez:

Just an FYI. They are not called anonymous delegates. The proper terminology is anonymous methods. The methods are anonymous, not the delegate.

'J' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:09:07 GMT, sez:

Sorry, let me correct what I stated... They are not anonymous delegates. (Obviously it appears people call them what they are not.)

'mike' on Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:41:32 GMT, sez:

Nikhil took this one on, too:

http://www.nikhilk.net/Entry.aspx?id=137

'Sun Digging Deep for Dynamic Language Support' on Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:51:40 GMT, sez:

Java ('s virtual machine) isn't always going to be so VERY "statically" typed !!

'ks' on Wed, 09 Aug 2006 02:35:00 GMT, sez:

The powershell answer to this is even better!!

basically anything in "{}" is an anonymous method already (a block actually) -- (provided it's not preceeded by a function name and brackets.)

PS> Function Cook ($i1, $i2, $f)
>> { Alert "Get the $i1"
>> &$f $i1
>> &$f $i2
>> }
PS> Cook Lobster Water {Param($x) Alert "Pot $x"}
Get the Lobster
Pot Lobster
Pot Water
PS> Cook Chicken Coconut {Param($x) Alert "Boom $x"}
Get the Chicken
Boom Chicken
Boom Coconut

'DOA' on Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:18:58 GMT, sez:

PHP can do it. Who knew....

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