Declaration syntax

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad" <ola.fosheim.grostad+dlang at gmail.com>]

On Wednesday, 8 January 2014 at 00:23:34 UTC, deed wrote:
> 1. Swap type and name. Like Go, but return type between 
> function name and
>    parameter list.

I find the Go swap to be less clear like "functionname(x,y,z 
int)", but the swap with ":" is ok.

However, then you might as well create a separate type name space 
starting with colon so that all types start with ":" and have a 
single colon mean auto (kinda like Go):

x :int; // int x;
y := 2; // auto y = 2;

I think the basic advantage with the swap is to have the return 
value after the the function parameter list:

add(x:int,y:int) :int
{}
sub(x:int,y:int) :int
{}

It is also more consistent with subclassing, an instance being a 
special case of a type.

define :subclass:superclass{} // class subclass : superclass{}

anonclass_instance:superclass{...}(...)

etc.

This is particularly useful in a language like Beta where you can 
inject code into the middle of the superclass:

define :dbaccess {
    db :=dbopen();
    INNER;
    db.close();
}

define :dbtransaction:dbaccess{
    db.begin();
    INNER;
    db.end();
}

define :updatedb:dbtransaction{
    db.get(...);
    db.put(...);
    db.put(...);
    INNER;
    db.consistencycheck();
}

:updatedb{
    db.put(...morestuff...)
}

> 2. Names come first, all other annotations after. ALWAYS.

Yep, or rather: more specific identifiers come first.