(Resolved) Syntax: require braces in method body for constructor

[lth]

This one bites me time and time again:

  class C {
    function C(a, b) a=a, b=b {}
    var a, b
  }

Spot the bug? There's a : missing after the parameter list, but the code is well-formed because the constructor can be an expression function, and here the body is "a=a, b=b" (which has no effect, certainly it does not initialize the instance variables). The pair of braces is treated by the parser as an empty instance initialization statement.

It's probably very rare indeed that the constructor will be an expression function -- constructors can't return values! So I propose that we require the braces around its body, so that this probably fairly common error will be reliably detected.

[jeffdyer]

Replying to lth:

Indeed this is a semantic error that is not being caught. I agree with Lars that we should make it a syntax error to have a constructor with a brace-less body.

Assigning to me.