Why does Flow require annotation of parameter of exported function? - flowtype

Following code (Flow playground):
/* #flow */
function a(p) {}
module.exports = a
throws exception
3: function a(p) {}
^ parameter `p`. Missing annotation
Why is that? I'd expect that type any would be automatically assumed for the parameter p.

From the documentation:
Module Boundaries
Flow requires annotations at the boundaries of modules. This allows Flow to analyze modules in isolation which improves the performance of checking types across module boundaries. We’ve found that this helps to improve the self-documenting nature of module interfaces as well.

Related

Create interface wrapping existing types with pointer-receiver methods

I need to test an app which uses Google Cloud Pubsub, and so must wrap its types pubsub.Client and pubsub.Subscriber for testing purposes. However, despite several attempts I can't get an interface around them which compiles.
The definitions of the methods I'm trying to wrap are:
func (s *Subscription) Receive(
ctx context.Context, f func(context.Context, *Message)) error
func (c *Client) Subscription(id string) *Subscription
Here is the current code. The Receiver interface (wrapper around Subscriber) seems to work, but I suspect it may need to change in order to fix SubscriptionMaker, so I've include both.
Note: I've tried several variations of where to reference and dereference pointers, so please don't tell me to change that unless you have an explanation of why your suggested configuration is the correct one or you've personally verified it compiles.
import (
"context"
"cloud.google.com/go/pubsub"
)
type Receiver interface {
Receive(context.Context, func(ctx context.Context, msg *pubsub.Message)) (err error)
}
// Pubsub subscriptions implement Receiver
var _ Receiver = &pubsub.Subscription{}
type SubscriptionMaker interface {
Subscription(name string) (s Receiver)
}
// Pubsub clients implement SubscriptionMaker
var _ SubscriptionMaker = pubsub.Client{}
Current error message:
common_types.go:21:5: cannot use "cloud.google.com/go/pubsub".Client literal (type "cloud.google.com/go/pubsub".Client) as type SubscriptionMaker in assignment:
"cloud.google.com/go/pubsub".Client does not implement SubscriptionMaker (wrong type for Subscription method)
have Subscription(string) *"cloud.google.com/go/pubsub".Subscription
want Subscription(string) Receiver
First, for most uses, using the ptest package is probably a much easier approach for testing pubsub. But of course, your specific question can apply to any library, and the below approach can be useful for many things, not just mocking pubsub.
Your broader goal of using interfaces to mock a library like this, is doable. But it is complicated when the library you wish to mock out returns concrete types that you cannot mock (probably due to unreported fields). The approach to be taken is much more involved than is often worth it, as there may be easier ways to test your code.
But if you're intent on doing this, the approach you must take is to not wrap the entire package in interfaces, not just the specific methods you wish to mock.
You would need to wrap any types that you wish to mock which are returned by or accepted by your interface, too. This usually means you also need to modify your production code (not just your test code), so this can sometimes be a deal-breaker for existing code bases.
Where I have usually done this before is when mocking something like the standard library's sql driver, but the same approach can be applied here. In essence, you would need to create a wrapper package for your pubsub library, which you use even in your production code. Again, this can be quite intrusive on existing codebases, but for the sake of illustration. Using your defined interfaces:
package mypubsub
import "cloud.google.com/go/pubsub"
type Receiver interface {
Recieve(context.Context, func(context.Context, *pubsub.Message) error)
}
type SubscriptionMaker interface {
Subscription(string) Receiver
}
You can then wrap the default implementation, for use in production code:
// defaultClient wraps the default pubsub Client functionality.
type defaultClient struct {
*pubsub.Client
}
func (d defaultImplementation) Subscription(name string) Receiver {
return d.Client.Subscription()
}
Naturally, you'd need to expand this package to wrap most or all of the pubsub package you're using. This can be a bit daunting.
But once you've done that, then use your mypubsub package everywhere in your code, instead of directly depending on the pubsub package. And now you can easily swap out a mock implementation anywhere you need for testing.
It can't be done.
When defining the type signature of a method on an interface, it must match exactly. func (c *Client) Subscription(id string) *Subscription returns a *Subscription, and a *Subscription is a valid Receiver, but it does not count as conforming to the interface method Subscription(string) Receiver. Go requires precise matching for function signatures, not the duck-typing style that it usually uses for interfaces.

How do I tell Flow that there will be a class on window without explicitly specifying its type?

I want to incorporate the Google Maps JS library into a Flow-typed project. Since there aren't any remotely complete Flow externs for the library, I'd like to tell Flow to accept whatever methods and constants I call from the class as Function and any, respectively. I know that the best answer would be to write a complete extern for GMaps and post it on Github, but I've got deadlines to meet. Using flow-typed is also an option to generate stubs, but that only seems to work on npm packages. What would be the best way to tackle this?
If you want to completely skip checks, you can simply declare:
declare var google: any;
Which will allow you to do whatever you want to google:
google.maps.Map();
google();
google.maps.Map.call();
Or if you wanted to at least ensure you always call google.maps.something and never google by itself:
declare var google: { maps: Object };

How to make Flow understand code written for Node.js?

I'm just getting started with Flow, trying to introduce it into an existing Node codebase.
Here are two lines Flow complains about:
import Module from 'module';
const nodeVersion = Number(process.versions.node.split('.')[0]);
The warnings about these lines are, respectively:
module. Required module not found
call of method `split`. Method cannot be called on possibly null value
So it seems like Flow isn't aware of some things that are standard in a Node environment (e.g. process.versions.node is guaranteed to be a string, and there is definitely a Node builtin called module).
But then again, Flow's configuration docs suggest it's Node-aware by default. And I have plenty of other stuff like import fs from 'fs'; which does not cause any warning. So what am I doing wrong?
Module fs works as expected because Flow comes with built-in definitions for it, see declare module "fs" here: https://github.com/facebook/flow/blob/master/lib/node.js#L624
Regarding process.versions.node, you can see in the same file that the versions key is typed as a map of nullable strings, with no mention of the specific node property: versions : { [key: string] : ?string };. So you'll need to either make a PR to improve this definition, or adjust your code for the possibility of that value being null.
I guess the answer about module "module" is obvious now – there are no built-in definitions for that module in Flow in lib/node.js. You could write your own definitions, and optionally send a PR with them to the Flow team. You can also try searching github for these, someone might have done the work already.
That lib directory is very useful by the way, it has Flow definitions for DOM and other stuff as well.

Find all imported interfaces that object supports

I have an object like os.Stdout and I want to know if it supports io.WriteCloser on my platform. I can get the type of my object, but it doesn't tell me anything about interfaces.
package main
import ("fmt"; "reflect"; "os")
func main() {
fmt.Println(reflect.TypeOf(os.Stdout))
}
This code prints *os.File to console.
I can manually lookup if os.File matches io.WriteCloser methods, but I am curious to get all interfaces that this object supports.
It's not an exactly answer on the question, because it is not for runtime. Anyway I think it maybe useful
Take a look on https://golang.org/lib/godoc/analysis/help.html
godoc has static analysis features. And it can display your type implements relations.
For example you can run godoc -http=:8081 -analysis=type and get all your packages documentation with type analysis.
To expand on the comment from #Volker regarding type assertions, that would look like this:
_, implements := interface{}(os.Stdout).(io.Reader)
It casts os.Stdout to an interface{} type and then attempts to assert that it is an io.Reader. Type assertions return two values; the first is the asserted value (or nil if assertion fails) and the second is a boolean indicating if the assertion was successful or not. If you omit capturing the second return value then a failed assertion will cause a panic.
For alternative, possibly more generic or runtime requirements the types package may have some useful functions based on reflection: https://godoc.org/golang.org/x/tools/go/types

Interception messages in Squeak

I am trying to understand better reflection in Smalltalk. I am using the latest version of Squeak (v4.3). I want to intercept every message sent to instances of one of my classes. I assumed that I could override the method ProtoObject>>withArgs:executeMethod but Stéphane Ducasse explained me that for performance reason, this method is not used (this is my own summary of his answer). Which method should I override / how could intercept sent messages?
Here is the code of my attempt:
Object subclass: #C
instanceVariableNames: 'i'
classVariableNames: ''
poolDictionaries: ''
category: 'CSE3009'.
C class compile: 'newWithi: anInt
^(self new) i: anInt ; yourself.'.
C compile: 'withArgs: someArgs executeMethod: aMethod
Transcript show: ''Caught: ''.
^ super withArgs: someArgs executeMethod aMethod.'.
C compile: 'foo: aText
Transcript show: aText.
Transcript show: i.
Transcript cr.'.
C compile: 'i: anInt
i := anInt.'.
o := C newWithi: 42.
o foo: 'This is foo: '.
Executing this entire piece of code yields:
This is foo: 42
When I would like to have:
Caught: This is foo: 42
There's no build-in way to intercept messages to objects like that. There are two ways we commonly use to do this kind of trick.
First, you can create a wrapper object which responds to doesNotUnderstand:. This object usually has nil for the superclass so it doesn't inherit any instance methods from Object. The doesNotUnderstand: handler would delegate all its messages to the target object. It has the option of performing code before and after the call. All references to the original object would now point to the new "proxy" object. Messages to self wouldn't be intercepted and the proxy would need to test for objects that return self and change the returned object to be the proxy instead.
The second approach is to use a mechanism called Method Wrappers. Method Wrappers allows you to replace all of the methods in a set of classes with methods that do some other operations before and after calling the original method. This approach can provide fairly seemless results and intercepts all messages including those send to self.
MethodWrappers is available for VisualWorks and VASmalltalk. I believe it's also available for Squeak and Pharo but I'm not positive.
The three main techniques are:
Dynamic proxies
Method wrapper
Bytecode instrumentation
For a good comparision of all possible approaches, have a look at "Evaluating Message Passing Control Techniques in Smalltalk" by Stephane Ducasse (you already know him, apparently).
Of interest is also "Smalltalk: A Reflective Langauge" by F. Rivard, that shows how to implement pre- and post-conditions using bytecode rewriting. This is also a form of interception.

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