511778 - class Object { static function init () ... } is too visible

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Tamarin Graveyard :: Virtual Machine, defect)

Description

[Jeff Dyer]

it is visible to code in all classes defined in the unnamed package, and so either shadows outer bindings named 'init' or masks mis-spellings of 'init'.

An obvious solution is to put 'init' into a hidden namespace, but there are probably others that should be considered (like restructuring the code to avoid the need for a static method for initialization). 

Jd

Comment 1

[Mike Morearty]

This has a bit of impact on Flash Builder users -- whenever they bring up code hints for "this" for any class, they will see init() as one of the possible completions, even if the class doesn't have an init() function; this is potentially a little confusing.

Comment 2

[Mike Morearty]

Krzysztof was bitten by this on Friday.  He had some code that looked something like this (this is from memory):

// init.as
package {
    public namespace init = "http://example.com";
}

// MyClass.as
package {
    public class MyClass {
        use namespace init;
        ....
        public function foo():void {
            foo.init::bar = 3;
        }
    }
}

He kept getting strange compile-time error messages; when I took a look, I remembered this bug, and told him to rename his namespace "init" to something else, and that fixed it.

Comment 3

[Lars T Hansen]

Versioning will fix this.

Comment 4

[Lars T Hansen]

Simplest test case - this should print 'undefined':

package {
  print(Object.init);
}

Comment 5

[Lars T Hansen]

Attachment: Patch

Not for review yet, but once bug #559994 lands this will be roughly the right fix for the present bug.

Comment 6

[Lars T Hansen]

tamarin-redux changeset:   4567:702d6ecfdb7b

Comment 7

[Mike Morearty]

confirmed fixed