This is the eleventh installment in a series of articles introducing the Ceylon language. Note that some features of the language may change before the final release.

This article was updated on 2/6/2011 to mention definite initialization of methods and on 28/5/2011 to reflect refinements to the language specification, and add new material dealing with self references, outer instance references, and circular references. The comment thread reflects information in the first version of article.

Self references and outer instance references

Ceylon features the keywords this and super, which refer to the current instance of a class — the receiving instance of an operation (method invocation, member class instantiation, or attribute evaluation/assignment), within the body of the definition of the operation. The semantics are exactly the same as what you're used to in Java. In particular, a reference to a member of super always refers to a member of a superclass. There is currently no syntax defined for references to a concrete member of a superinterface.

In addition to this and super, Ceylon features the keyword outer, which refers to the parent instance of the current instance of a nested class.

class Parent(String name) {
    shared String name = name;
    shared class Child(String name) {
        shared String name = outer.name + "/" + name;
        shared Parent parent { return outer; }
    }
}

There are some restrictions on the use of this, super, and outer, which we'll explore below.

Multiple inheritance and linearization

There's a good reason why super always refers to a superclass, and never to a superinterface.

Ceylon features a restricted kind of multiple inheritance often called mixin inheritance. Some languages with multiple inheritance or even mixin inheritance feature so-called depth-first member resolution or linearization where all supertypes of a class are arranged into a linear order. We believe that this model is arbitrary and fragile.

Ceylon doesn't perform any kind of linearization of supertypes. The order in which types appear in the satisfies clause is never significant. The only way one supertype can take precedence over another supertype is if the first supertype is a subtype of the second supertype. The only way a member of one supertype can take precedence over a member of another supertype is if the first member refines the second member.

In our view, there's no non-fragile basis for deciding that one type specializes another type unless the first type is explicitly defined to be a subtype of the second. There's no non-fragile basis for deciding that one operation is more specific than another operation unless the first operation is explicitly declared to refine the second.

For a similar reason, interfaces shouldn't be able to define initialization logic. There's no non-fragile way to define the ordering in which supertype initializers are executed in a multiple-inheritance model. This is the basic reason why interfaces are stateless in Ceylon.

(Note that these arguments are even stronger in the case of adapter introduction, where linearization or statefulness would be even more fragile.)

So Ceylon is more restrictive than some other languages here. But we think that this restriction makes a subtype less vulnerable to breakage due to changes in its supertypes.

Definite assignment and definite initialization

A really nice feature of Java is that the compiler checks that a local variable has definitely been assigned a value before allowing use of the local variable in an expression. So, for example, the following code compiles without error:

String greeting;
if (person==me) {
    greeting = "You're beautiful!";
}
else {
    greeting = "You're ugly!";
}
print(greeting);

But the following code results in an error at compile time:

String greeting;
if (person==me) {
    greeting = "You're beautiful!";
}
print(greeting);   //error: greeting not definitely initialized

Many (most?) languages don't perform this kind of static analysis, which means that use of an uninitialized variable results in an error at runtime instead of compile time.

Unfortunately, Java doesn't do this same kind of static analysis for instance variables, not even for final instance variables. Instead, an instance variable which is not assigned a value in the constructor is initialized to a default value (zero or null). Surprisingly, it's even possible to see this default value for a final instance variable that is eventually assigned a value by the constructor. Consider the following code:

//Java code that prints "null"
class Broken {
    final String greeting;
    
    Broken() {
        print();
        greeting = "Hello";
    }

    void print() {
        System.out.println(greeting);
    }

}
new Broken();

This behavior is bad enough in and of itself. But it would be even less acceptable in Ceylon, where most types don't have an acceptable default value. For example, consider the type Person. What would be an acceptable default value of this type? The value null certainly won't do, since it's not even an instance of Person. (It's an instance of Nothing, remember!) I suppose we could say that evaluation of an uninitialized instance variable always results in an immediate runtime exception, but this is really just our old friend NullPointerException creeping back in by the back door, and, well, it's Just Not How We Do Things Around Here.

Indeed, few object-oriented languages (i.e. none that I know of) perform the necessary static analysis to ensure definite initialization of instance variables, and I believe that this is perhaps one main reason why object-oriented languages have never featured typesafe handling of null values.

Class bodies

In order to make it possible for the compiler to guarantee definite initialization of attributes, Ceylon imposes some restrictions on the body of a class. (Remember that Ceylon doesn't have constructors!) Actually, to be completely fair, they're not really restrictions at all, at least not from one point of view, since you're actually allowed extra flexibility in the body of a class that you're not allowed in the body of method or attribute declarations! But compared to Java, there's some things you're not allowed to do.

First, we need to know that the compiler automatically divides the body of the class into two sections:

1. First comes the initializer section, which contains a mix of declarations, statements and control structures. The initializer is executed every time the class is instantiated.
2. Then comes the declaration section, which consists purely of declarations, similar to the body of an interface.

Now we're going to introduce some rules that apply to code that appears in each section. The purpose of these rules is to guarantee that an instance variable has had a value specified or assigned before its value is used in an expression.

But you don't need to actually explicitly think about these rules when you write code. Only very rarely will you need to think about the initializer section and declaration section in explicit terms. The compiler will let you know when you break the rules, and force you to fix your code.

Initializer section

The initializer section is responsible for initializing the state of the new instance of the class, before a reference to the new instance is available to clients. The declaration section contains members of the class which are only called after the instance has been fully initialized.

Consider the following example:

class Hello(String? name) {
    
    //initializer section:

    String greetingForTime {
        if (morning) {
            return "Good morning";
        }
        else if (afternoon) {
            return "Good afternoon";
        }
        else if (evening) {
            return "Good evening";
        }
        else {
            return "Hi";
        }
    }
    
    String greeting;
    if (exists name) {
        greeting = greetingForTime + ", " + name;
    }
    else {
        greeting = greetingForTime;
    }
    
    //declaration section:
    
    shared void say() {
        print(greeting);
    }
    
    default void print(String message) {
        writeLine(message);
    }
    
}

To prevent a reference to a new instance of the class leaking before the new instance has been completely initialized, the language spec defines the following terminology:

Within a class initializer, a self reference to the instance being initialized is either:

• the expression this, unless contained in a nested class declaration, or
• the expression outer, contained in a directly nested class declaration.

Now, according to the language spec:

A statement or declaration that appears within the initializer of a class may not:

• evaluate attributes, invoke methods, or instantiate member classes that are declared later in the body of the class upon the instance that is being initialized, including upon a self reference to the instance being initialized.
• pass a self reference to the instance being initialized as an argument of an instantiation or method invocation or as the value of an attribute assignment or specification.
• return a self reference to the instance being initialized.
• evaluate attributes, invoke methods, or instantiate member classes declared in the declaration section of a superclass of the instance being initialized, including upon a self reference to the instance being initialized.
• invoke or evaluate a formal member of the instance being initialized, including upon a self reference to the instance being initialized.
• invoke or evaluate a default member of the instance that is being initialized, except via the special super self reference.

Declaration section

The declaration section contains the definition of members that don't hold state, and that are never called until the instance to which they belong has been completely initialized.

According to the language spec:

[The declaration section] may not contain:

• a statement or control structure, unless it is nested inside a method, attribute, nested class, or nested interface declaration,
• a declaration with a specifier or initializer, unless it is nested inside a method, attribute, nested class, or nested interface declaration,
• an object declaration with a non-empty initializer section, or
• a specification or initialization statement for a member of the instance being initialized.

However, the declarations in this second section may freely use this and super, and may invoke any method, evaluate any attribute, or instantiate any member class of the class or its superclasses. Furthermore, the usual restriction that a declaration may only be used by code that appears later in the block containing the declaration is relaxed.

Note that the rules governing the declaration section of a class body are essentially the same rules governing the body of an interface. That makes sense, because interfaces don't have initialization logic — what interfaces and declaration sections have in common is statelessness.

Circular references

Unfortunately, these rules make it a little tricky to set up circular references between two objects without resort to non-variable attributes. This is a problem Ceylon has in common with functional languages, which also emphasize immutability. We can't write the following code in Ceylon:

abstract class Child(Parent p) {
    shared formal Parent parent = p;
}

class Parent() {
    shared Child child = Child(this); //compile error (this passed as argument in initializer section)
}

Eventually, Ceylon will probably need some specialized machinery for dealing with this problem, but for now, here is a partial solution:

abstract class Child() {
    shared formal Parent parent;
}

class Parent() {
    shared object child extends Child() {
        shared actual parent {
            return outer;
        }
    }    
}

Definite initialization of methods

Ceylon lets us separate the declaration of a method defined using a method reference from the actual specification statement that specifies the method reference.

Float x = ... ;
Float op(Float y);
switch (symbol)
case ("+") { op = x.plus; }
case ("-") { op = x.minus; }
case ("*") { op = x.times; }
case ("/") { op = x.divided; }

The rules for definite initialization of locals and attributes also apply to methods defined using a specification statement.

Definite return

While we're on the topic, it's worth noting that the Ceylon compiler, just like the Java compiler, also performs definite return checking, to ensure that a method or getter always has an explicitly specified return value. So, this code compiles without error:

String greeting {
    if (person==me) {
        return "You're beautiful!";
    }
    else {
        return "You're ugly!";
    }
}

But the following code results in an error at compile time:

String greeting {   //error: greeting does not definitely return
    if (person==me) {
        return "You're beautiful!";
    }
}

There's more...

In the Part 12, we're going to discuss annotations, and take a little peek at using the metamodel to build framework code.