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Bring init-exe main.zig in line with current style guidelines#10697

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Bring init-exe main.zig in line with current style guidelines #10697

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08f4ee7
Bring init-exe main.zig in line with current style guidelines
Jan 26, 2022
e4444c9
Fix CLI test case to match new behaviour
Jan 26, 2022
422e374
Add newline to text
Jan 26, 2022
7d979f8
Merge branch 'ziglang:master' into patch-1
Jan 26, 2022
4c5ee7c
Merge branch 'ziglang:master' into patch-1
Jan 27, 2022
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5 changes: 3 additions & 2 deletions lib/std/special/init-exe/src/main.zig
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Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
const std = @import("std");

pub fn main() anyerror!void {
std.log.info("All your codebase are belong to us.", .{});
pub fn main() !void {
const stdout = std.io.getStdOut().writer();
try stdout.print("All your codebase are belong to us.\n", .{});
Comment on lines +4 to +5

@andrewrkandrewrkJan 27, 2022•
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Which one are we doing?

  1. Hello world as defined to be the simplest program that prints a string to stdout.
  2. Hello world as defined to be simplest program that debug prints, like you would do if you are troubleshooting something?

For (2) I could see it being a call to std.debug.print or std.log. But it looks like what you're trying to do is move this closer to (1), in which case this would be the way to do it:

Suggested change
conststdout=std.io.getStdOut().writer();
trystdout.print("All your codebase are belong to us.\n", .{});
trystd.io.getStdOut().writeAll("All your codebase are belong to us.\n");

I think that's not actually helpful though, because it would lead to people using this pattern instead of std.debug.print or std.log.

I think status quo is actually better.

@ghostghostJan 27, 2022

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I was doing
3. Hello world as defined to be the most correct (in terms of code style) program that prints a string to stdout.

The reasoning for this is, clearly what we're doing here is printing a message, no matter what mechanism we use; therefore what we do here will be taken as the correct way to print a message in Zig. We need to set a good example.

Here's why I say that status quo is not a good example:

  • It prints to stderr rather than stdout, in contrast to literally every other Hello World in existence.
  • It is not tolerant to errors, so misses prime advertising space for a headline feature of Zig.
  • It wraps the message in "info: "..'\n', which is not even what we want when doing a Hello World.
  • It does not run outside debug mode, so is not robust.

We're not playing code golf here; we're demonstrating, maybe for one of the first times to some people, an example of how to write Zig. We can be a bit more verbose for the sake of clarity, and I say we should.

@andrewrkandrewrkJan 28, 2022•
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Most correct hello world is using writeAll, as suggested above. Your (3) is my (1). We are talking about the same thing.

zig init-exe is not intended to be "hello world" - it is intended to be a template to get you going. That's why it also includes unit tests. I think teaching people how to use std.log is more appropriate than teaching how to write to stdout, which is actually a rare use case.

I think it should be improved even further and set someone up a GeneralPurposeAllocator as well as an arena with the lifetime of the process, with comments explaining when someone might use one or the other.

Also argument parsing, and maybe even a buffered writer to write something to a file. Basically a "getting started" kit.

This PR is not the direction I see this going.

}

test "basic test" {
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion test/cli.zig
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Expand Up@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ fn testZigInitLib(zig_exe: []const u8, dir_path: []const u8) !void {
fn testZigInitExe(zig_exe: []const u8, dir_path: []const u8) !void {
_ = try exec(dir_path, true, &[_][]const u8{ zig_exe, "init-exe" });
const run_result = try exec(dir_path, true, &[_][]const u8{ zig_exe, "build", "run" });
try testing.expectEqualStrings("info: All your codebase are belong to us.\n", run_result.stderr);
try testing.expectEqualStrings("All your codebase are belong to us.\n", run_result.stdout);
}

fn testGodboltApi(zig_exe: []const u8, dir_path: []const u8) anyerror!void {
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