Reading constant names from constant nodes

[exterm]

Hi,

I need to get the constant name from the different types of constant nodes:

ConstantWriteNode, ConstantPathNode, ConstantReadNode, ConstantPathWriteNode.

It's different for all of them, but there seem to be some especially strange inconsistencies.

For example, why does ConstantReadNode have a full_name method, although it's not a path node? ConstantWriteNode doesn't have that method.

Why does full_name return a string, but name returns a symbol?

[exterm]

cc @kddnewton (not sure how notifications for discussions work by default)

[kddnewton]

The node_ext.rb stuff is meant to provide convenience APIs if people need it. The ConstantReadNode has full_name in order to be compatible, so that you can call full_name on any kind of Constant* node and get back the same kind of stuff. ConstantWriteNode doesn't have it because you're always writing to a single constant name, but I'd be happy to have it.

full_name returns a string because it will include ::, name returns a symbol because it's always a single identifier.

[exterm]

The ConstantReadNode has full_name in order to be compatible, so that you can call full_name on any kind of Constant* node and get back the same kind of stuff. ConstantWriteNode doesn't have it because you're always writing to a single constant name, but I'd be happy to have it.

These two sentences seem contradictory. It'd be great to have full_name on ConstantWriteNode too so that we can call full_name on any kind of Constant* node.

[exterm]

I understand the way the code is generated from the config this is not currently really possible, but it would be really nice to have some inheritance between node types.

ClassNode and ModuleNode share an interface, and all the Constant* nodes (could) also share one. For use with sorbet, it would be great to just be able to say params(node: Prism::ConstantNode).

[kddnewton]

These two sentences seem contradictory. It'd be great to have full_name on ConstantWriteNode too so that we can call full_name on any kind of Constant* node.

@exterm yeah as mentioned, I'd be happy to support full_name on ConstantWriteNode. Do you want to open a PR for that?

it would be really nice to have some inheritance between node types.

I would be amenable to marker interfaces, which should work with Sorbet. That's been discussed a bit here: #2092 and I think this is something we're going to implement sometime this year.

[exterm]

PR for full_name on ConstantWriteNode: #2485

[kddnewton]

I'm not sure if I answered all of your questions, feel free to ask more.