[m-rev.] For review: change the way we handle inst any non-locals in negated contexts (again)

[Julien Fischer]

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Mark Brown wrote:

> > The impression I received further back in this thread was that we didn't
> > want to allow the promise_* annotations on the predicate declarations
> > for exported predicates.
>
> No, we just didn't want to *require* them.  They would still be allowed
> on exported or non-exported declarations alike -- the compiler should still
> accept them -- but as Ralph pointed out it would generally be bad style
> to actually use them on interface declarations (in the same way that it
> would be bad style to expose implementation details in any of the numerous
> other ways that would be possible).
>

Yes, so why add another way of exposing implementation details?

> > I am opposed to the idea of allowing them
> > on local pred declarations but not on exported ones.
>
> I agree that the acceptability of pred/func declarations should not depend
> on whether they are exported.
>
> > In that case
> > I would just prefer that we have separate promise_(semi)pure
> > declarations and not allow promise_(semi)pure declarations on predicate
> > declarations at all
>
> Perhaps you're right.  The argument for them is that the "promise"
> annotations can replace the "non-promise" annotations on goals, so they
> should also be allowed to do the same thing for declarations.  And also
> they are kinda concise.
>

They're not that much more concise.

> The argument against them (correct me if I'm wrong) is that there would then
> be two different means to achieve the same end, and one of these means
> could be used in a way that is bad style.
>

Yes.

Cheers,
Julien.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
mercury-reviews mailing list
post:  mercury-reviews at cs.mu.oz.au
administrative address: owner-mercury-reviews at cs.mu.oz.au
unsubscribe: Address: mercury-reviews-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: unsubscribe
subscribe:   Address: mercury-reviews-request at cs.mu.oz.au Message: subscribe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------