Open Bug 1353465 Opened 7 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Consider using mozilla::Variant for ParseNode

Categories

(Core :: JavaScript Engine, enhancement, P3)

enhancement

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: Yoric, Unassigned)

Details

(Keywords: triage-deferred)

I've been bitten a few times by ParseNode's unions. We should consider rewriting it to take advantage of the safer/better self-documented `mozilla::Variant`.
ParseNode is a bit cesspooly, yes.  There have been ideas over time to fix this aspect of it, in one way or another.  Using actual inheritance, for example, to represent the various sorts of node has been idly proposed.  The exact better approach is not entirely obvious/clear/decided.

It also seems worth noting that a better "ParseNode" replacement ideally should well-type its children.  And a distinction between statement nodes and expression nodes, especially, would be a very very nice thing.  Having ExpressionStatement contain an Expression, and not a Statement, in a type-system-enforced way, would be a very good thing.  Quite possibly the fix should address both concerns at once.  (Although not necessarily, logrolling as being potentially a thing that could unduly delay a fix.)

In short, I'd hesitate to prematurely fixate on Variant as the solution for this.  (Not even reaching the fact that Variant's internal tag is not publicly exposed right now, but the ParseNodeKind tag in ParseNode is, and possibly that's something that *should not* be fixt.)
Keywords: triage-deferred
Priority: -- → P3
Severity: normal → S3
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