[M3devel] [modula3/cm3] Quake scoping issue (#19)

[JC Chu]

I understand from §7.2 and your comment that, when “m3makefile2” is included, it is interpreted inside the local scope created when `map_proc` is called, where `list` is not bound to a procedure.  In fact, even if “m3makefile2” didn’t define `list` itself, the same error would still occur.  (That said, if procedures can only be defined in the global scope, shouldn’t they only be searched there as well?)

However, by the same argument, the behavior of the following makefile is a bit unexpected to me.

    test_var = 0
    readonly proc call (f, test_var) is return f() end
    readonly proc write_test_var () is
      write(format("test_var = %s\n"), test_var)
    end
    readonly proc eval (_) is end
    eval(call(write_test_var, 123))

Here, `write_test_var` is evaluated in its own scope, which is inside the scope of `call`, where `test_var` = 123.  The actual output, though, is 0.

— JC

-----Original Message-----
From: Rodney M. Bates [mailto:rbatesjk at lcwb.coop] 
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 23:40
To: reply+00655cb4faee270b469769c158f8bcd114e2942747144a0292cf0000000115b6154992a169ce0f0c9468 at reply.github.com; m3devel <m3devel at elegosoft.com>; jcchu >> JC Chu <jcchu at acm.org>
Subject: Re: [modula3/cm3] Quake scoping issue (#19)

According to Quake, 7.3, "Procedures may be defined in the global scope only".
Apparently, from experiment, this means that, although the procedure definition
itself can be located inside a local scope, its name is declared in the global
scope.

So, if you don't import libm3, your 'list' declaration is not a duplicate, thus
produces no error, and becomes declared in the global scope.  But the call on
'list' resolves to the formal parameter 'list', of 'map_proc', which is found
in the local scope, and whose value is the list '[ m3makefile2 ]', not a
procedure, and thus not callable.

Any suitable renaming of either the parameter or the procedure, so that the two
meanings of 'list' have different names, works as expected.

I'll grant that having a procedure declaration located in a local scope but
declaring its name in the global one is peculiar, and this is a peculiar
effect of that rule.

I have made a note to explain this better in the Quake documentation.

On 08/23/2017 11:17 PM, jcchu wrote:
> See demo.zip <https://github.com/modula3/cm3/files/1247702/demo.zip>.
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