[GROOVY-1649] a keyword used as name of property should not require quotes

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.0
• Fix Version/s: 1.6-beta-2
• Component/s: parser
• Environment: n/a
• Assignee: Paul King
• Reporter: Corey
• Created: 15/Jan/07 00:45
• Updated: 12/Oct/08 08:49
• Resolved: 30/May/08 07:32

Description

The obvious example:

String.'package'.name

... the parser really should be able to clearly determine that a property is a property - and not a keyword.

Not only does this merely look bad, but it's a source of frustration and error, not to mention difficult to understand/debug for new users to groovy:

groovy -e "println String.package.name"
org.codehaus.groovy.control.MultipleCompilationErrorsException: startup failed, script_from_command_line: 1: unexpected token: . @ line 1, column 15.

... even if the error was more along the lines of "invalid use of reserved keyword: property", it would still be a source of frustration, not to mention it kind of looks bad from a technical standpoint.

As per the following thread on groovy users mailing list:

http://archive.groovy.codehaus.org/user/200701132220.08256.corey_s%40qwest.net