Integer literals

Some functions in Sentient’s standard library only support integer literals. For example:

# Supported:

3.upto(5, function (i) {
  # ...
});

# Not supported:

a, b = 3, 5;

a.upto(b, function (i) {
  # ...
});

In the first case, the literals 3 and 5 are passed as arguments of the function. This is supported because it is possible to determine at compile time how many iterations to perform.

In the second case, the variables a and b are passed as arguments of the function. Although it is possible, in this specific case to determine how many iterations should be performed; it is not possible in general.

Why?

To understand why, consider this example:

# Not supported:

int a, b;

a.upto(b, function (i) {
  # ...
});

In this case, the values of a and b cannot be determined until the program runs. Sentient generates code based on how many iterations there are and so, unfortunately it needs to know this number upfront. This is one of Sentient’s limitations.

Whenever possible, Sentient tries to provide general functions that support both literals and pre-assigned variables. It will be noted in the standard library when this limitation applies.