Should this be an error

[hopscc]

From Question in ticket:170

Code: Select all

class X
   def main
      a = 'aoeu' to Object
      b = 5 to Object
      l = [a to String, b to int]
      x = l[0]
      y = l[1]
      assert x.length == 4
      assert y * 2 == 10



Fails with

Code: Select all

castInList.cobra(8): error: Cannot find a definition for "length" in "x" whose
type is "Object".
castInList.cobra(9): error: Cannot apply STAR to Object and int. Try finding a
method that performs this function.
Compilation failed - 2 errors, 0 warnings


from ( l is a List<Of Object>) and so become x and y

Should it ??

[Charles]

Currently, a list of heterogeneous types such as [true, 3] will yield an inferred type of List<of Object>, but I've been thinking for awhile that unless the actual element types are all Object (or Object?), the inferred type should be List<of dynamic> instead. If that were the case, then your example would work and Cobra would gain another bit of that good ol' Python convenience.

This would apply to inference on set and dictionary literals as well.

I would certainly accept a patch for this. Or I'll get to it eventually if no one beats me to it.

Thanks for bringing this up. I didn't see what the problem was at first when you mentioned it and then it slipped my mind.