Proposed syntax for _root_

Language Design
60

I also appreciate how identifiers resolve consistently between imports and terms. However, I have many times been bitten by this behavior in practice.

Making _root_ a keyword won’t solve this problem since I don’t want my source files to look like this

import _root_.a.b
import _root_.c.d
import _root_.e.f
// ... 15 more lines of import _root_.a

For a language that already supports import a.{b, c}, this feels unsatisfying. Here is an alternative proposal: extend grouped imports to support arbitrary nesting.

import _root_.{
  a.b
  c.{d => e}
  k._
  ...
}
  • backwards compatible, don’t use the feature if you want to cross-build to older scala versions
  • natural extension of already existing functionality: import a.{b, c}
  • no overloaded keyword or delimiter semantics
  • quality of life improvement for people like myself who prefer fully qualified imports

To complement this change, we can make _root_ a keyword, although I’ve never experienced problems with this in practice.

9 Likes