Functions

Functions in Basic Storm have the following form: 

[<visibility>] <return type> <name>(<parameters>) [: <options>] {
    <body>
}

The part <return type> is the name of the type returned from the function. The <name> is a single name part (without parameters) that denote the name of the function. Finally, <parameters> is a comma separated list of formal parameters. Each parameter consists of the name of the type of the parameter followed by the name of the parameter in the function.

The optional <visibility> is described in detail in the section definitions.

For example, a function that adds two integers may be defined as follows: 

Int myAdd(Int a, Int b) { a + b; }

Functions that are declared inside of types are considered to be member functions. These functions will be given an implicit first parameter named this that is a reference to an instance of the type in which the function is declared. To illustrate this, consider the function set in the class below: 

class MyInt {
    Int value;

    void set(Int newValue) {
        value = newValue;
    }
}

The set function here takes two formal parameters. The first one is of the type MyInt and it is named this. The second one is of type Int and has the name newValue as specified. As such, the function set could (almost) equivalently be declared outside the class as follows: 

class MyInt {
    Int value;
}

void set(MyInt this, Int newValue) {
    value = newValue;
}

This illustrates how the function parameters are transformed by Basic Storm. The example also illustrates that it is possible to name a parameter this in Basic Storm. Furthermore, doing so allows referring to variables in the type implicitly, just as if the type would have been a member. In this case, the variable value refers to this.value since a this variable is available.

Thus, the only difference between the two versions above are related to scoping. First, as described in the section on name lookup, the set function that is a member of MyInt will be prioritized over the free version if it is called as MyInt().set(5), and the free version will be prioritized if it is called as set(MyInt(), 5). The second difference is that the free version of set is not able to access any private or protected members of MyInt.

Assign Functions

In Basic Storm, it is possible to mark functions as assign functions by specifying the return type as assign. This causes the return type to be void, and allows the function to appear in the left hand side of an assignment. If this happens, Basic Storm transforms the assignment into a call of the function instead. Since Basic Storm does not require parentheses when calling functions with empty parameter lists, this allows emulating a public member using a plain function as a getter, and an assign function as a setter. This can be done for both member functions and free functions. To illustrate this, consider the code below: 

class MyClass {
    private Nat myValue;

    // Getter function.
    Nat value() { return myValue; }

    // Setter assignment function.
    assign value(Nat v) { myValue = v; }
}

// Usage of assign functions:
void use() {
    MyClass x;

    // Calls MyClass:value().
    Nat tmp = x.value;
    // Calls MyClass:value(Nat)
    x.value = tmp;
}

Options

Zero or more options can be applied to functions. This is done by appending a colon (:) followed by a comma-separated list of options to the function definition. The following options are available by default, but libraries may provide additional options:

Options for All Functions

Additional options can be provided by extending the rule lang:bs:SCommonOption. The ones provided by Basic Storm are:

Options for Free Functions

Additional options can be provided by extending the rule lang:bs:SFreeSpecialOption. The ones provided by Basic Storm are:

Options for Member Functions

Additional options can be provided by extending the rule lang:bs:SMemberOption. The ones provided by Basic Storm are: