Stream: contributing

Topic: deprecating WSA (whitespace application for function calls)


view this post on Zulip jan kili (Feb 12 2025 at 21:18):

As discussed in #ideas > reflecting on static dispatch... and discussing removing WSA , we're going to start officially deprecating WSA (whitespace application syntax for function calls). For example, Num.add 1 2 should now be written as Num.add(1, 2) instead, using the new PNC (parentheses and commas) function call syntax.

There are several aspects for us to discuss further:

view this post on Zulip Luke Boswell (Feb 12 2025 at 21:20):

I think the plan is that types are WSA and values are PNC, its subtle but I appreciate having them distinct visually.

view this post on Zulip Sam Mohr (Feb 12 2025 at 21:21):

#ideas > Using parens for types

view this post on Zulip Luke Boswell (Feb 12 2025 at 21:23):

e.g. [Number I64, String Str] is the type of a tag union, with Number(42), or String("a string") being values of this type.

view this post on Zulip Brendan Hansknecht (Feb 12 2025 at 22:49):

I think we have a very easy removal point. Just never port WSA to the new zig compiler

view this post on Zulip Brendan Hansknecht (Feb 12 2025 at 22:50):

Whenever that is the default compiler, it will be officially removed

view this post on Zulip Brendan Hansknecht (Feb 12 2025 at 22:50):

It is already deprecated in the old rust compiler and will auto format to PNC

view this post on Zulip Brendan Hansknecht (Feb 12 2025 at 22:51):

So I would label it as deprecated already

view this post on Zulip Brendan Hansknecht (Feb 12 2025 at 22:51):

I don't think we need to do anything more aggressive in the old rust compiler.

view this post on Zulip Anthony Bullard (Feb 18 2025 at 17:12):

I agree with Brendan

view this post on Zulip jan kili (Feb 18 2025 at 18:42):

These simple replies seem like consensus! CC @Richard Feldman

:thumbs_up:s?


Last updated: Jul 06 2025 at 12:14 UTC