[GROOVY-4927] AstBuilder.buildFromString does not recognise Class literal

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 1.8.0
• Component/s: ast builder
• Environment: Linux x86, Java 1.7.0 b-134 (supposed to be environment independent); GMaven 1.4
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Emmanuel Castro
• Created: 17/Jul/11 04:28
• Updated: 04/May/13 01:29

Description

AstBuilding of class names makes me headache (see below) :

new AstBuilder().buildFromString(CompilePhase.CANONICALIZATION, 
         "some.fully.qualified.ClassName.staticMethodCall(someArgument)")

The correct compilation of the class name some.fully.qualified.ClassName depends on what is in the class loader:

• If the class some.fully.qualified.ClassName has already been compiled, it yields to a ClassExpression
• If the class has not been compiled yet, it yields to a succession of VariableExpression with more ore less the same semantics than this.some.fully.qualified.ClassName. It obviously results in execution error groovy.lang.MissingPropertyException: No such property: some for class: some.other.package.MyClass

I encounter the when writing ASTTransformation in a Gmaven 1.4-SNAPSHOT project. The result of the compilation is unstable, as it depends on the order Gmaven compiles the classes.

There are many workaround candidates:

• Configuring Gmaven to generate class stub for Java. It would make the class names recognized as class identifiers;
• Using buildFromBlock
• Building nodes at hands;

Possible definitive solution to the problem would be:

• Adding parameters to AstBuilder in order to tell what is a class name, and what is not;
• Adding a syntax to the Groovy language to denote class constants irrespective to the class loader context.

Which solution design has your preference?