petdance/scratch — Issue #887: Replace .globalconst/.const directives by .const/.localconst (respectively)
Author: petdance
Created: 2011-11-14 06:13:53+00:00
State: open
Labels: core, Pri-normal, rfc, Sev-medium

This ticket replaces RT57634.
hi,

in PIR you can use the .globalconst directive in a sub to define a constant
that is globally accessible.
Likewise, you can use the .const directive in a sub that is local to that
sub.

.sub foo
.globalconst int answer = 42
.const num PI = 3.14

.end

answer in this case is globally accessible (in any other sub, that is parsed
AFTER the foo subroutine, I should note)
PI in this case is only accessible in this subroutine foo.

However, I question the need for .globalconst, as the .const directive can
also be used /outside/ of a subroutine, like so:

.const int answer = 42

Therefore, the .globalconst directive seems to be superfluous; why have 2
directives that do the same thing; if a .globalconst is accessible globally
anyway, there's no need to define it WITHIN a sub.

Therefore, my proposal is to remove the .globalconst directive;
whenever you need to have a global const, use .const outside of a
subroutine.
whenever you need to have a local const (in a sub), use .const inside a
subroutine.

comments welcome,
kjs

Originally http://trac.parrot.org/parrot/ticket/1190 by @kjs