Updating Object, the Object/Record experience is poor

22

FYI.

I was not very explicit in my first post, but I believe this update syntax should also be used for Records as well. My suggestion could be summarized that Objects need an ability to safely update, and Records need a smoother ability to safely update.

So instead of this

let updateMe = {...me, name:"bob", favoriteColor:Blue, contact:{...me.contact, address:{...me.contact.address, street: "321 new address"}}}

We just do this:

let updatedMe = update_person(me, (draft) => {
	draft.name = "bob"
  	draft.favoriteColor = Blue
  	draft.contact.address.street = "321 new address"
})

For a Record setup like below:

type address = {
  street:string,
  city:string,
  zip:int
}

type contact = {
  address: address,
  phone:string
}

@decorator
type color = Red | Blue | Green

type person = {
 name: string,
  age: int,
  favoriteColor: color,
  contact:contact
}

let me: person = {
  name: "sean",
  age: 21,
  favoriteColor: Red,
  contact: {address: {street:"123 old address", city:"chicago", zip:1235}, phone: "555-617-5854"}
}
23

Why donā€™t you do a JS RFC with that suggestion, see what the feedback is.

1 Like
24

Yeah, now that I have thought about it more and I can articulate it betteršŸ˜‰

25

Introduction to Immer | Immer provides a JS implementation of the suggested update mechanism. Itā€™s based on the Proxy API.

26

Introduction to Immer | Immer provides a JS implementation of the suggested update mechanism. Itā€™s based on the Proxy API.

Yeah, Immer is my inspiration. I mocked out the functionality for both Objects and Records. I need to update the functionality to use Proxy. Luckily for ReScript, we donā€™t need to do so many checks as Immer because the scope is smaller with just Objects and Records.

Would be nice if this was just built into the language, but it should be possible with a PPX as well.

1 Like
27

Iā€™m quite fond Kotlinā€™s simple syntax for making new objects of data classes:

person.copy(age=21, favoriteColor=Blue)

Something similar with the immer functionality would be a huge DX improvement. I find object spreads in codebases not the easiest to read.

And I know keywords are frowned on, but look how nice it looks when reusing new

let p2 = new person {
  age = 21
  contact.address = "321 new address"
}
2 Likes