An Exquisite Amble through the Realm of Desugaring

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Bonjour Confrères and Consoeurs,

Ai, Yay, Yay,

wish to invite you on a captivating sojourn into the sophisticated sphere of Desugaring. In the lexicon of programming, Desugaring denotes the elegant procedure of translating more ornate linguistic constructs—dubbed as Syntactic Sugar — into their simpler, fundamental equivalents.

Language processors, including compilers and static analyzers, often expand sugared constructs into their more verbose equivalents before processing, a process sometimes called “desugaring”.

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Let’s delve into this with a trifecta of illuminating illustrations:

Java 8: Lambda expressions—an epitome of chic in Java 8. They are nothing short of syntactic sugar elegantly draped over the structure of functional interfaces.

Runnable r = () -> System.out.println("Executing with élan in Java!");
r.run();

Manifests as:

Runnable r = new Runnable(){
    public void run(){
        System.out.println("Executing with élan in Java!");
    }
};
r.run();

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Python: Drawing our gaze to Python, we find the list comprehension—a charming vignette of syntactic sugar.

elegantlist = [x**2 for x in range(5)]

Transforms to:

elegantlist = []
for x in range(5):
  elegantlist.append(x**2)

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Go: In the realm of Go, short variable declarations are a sublime manifestation of syntactic sugar.

func main() {
  g := 42
  fmt.Println(g)
}

Becomes:

func main() {
  var g int
  g = 42
  fmt.Println(g)
}

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PHP Constructor Property Promotion

Meandering onto our home turf, PHP 8.0, we encounter Constructor Property Promotions—an exhibition of syntactic sugar par excellence:

class Vertex {
  public function __construct(
   public float $x = 0.0,
   public float $y = 0.0,
   public float $z = 0.0,
  ) {}
}

Unveils as:

class Vertex {
  public float $x;
  public float $y;
  public float $z;

  public function __construct(
     float $x = 0.0,
     float $y = 0.0,
     float $z = 0.0,
  ) {
    $this->x = $x;
    $this->y = $y;
    $this->z = $z;
  }
}

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Venting through the protocol:

( new class (Vertex::class) { public function __construct(string $_) { var_dump ([
    // :: show instance without a call to contructor :: //
    ($_ = new ReflectionClass($_))->newInstanceWithoutConstructor(),
    // :: show default values :: ................... :: //
    ...array_map(fn ($_) => [$_->getName() => $_->getDefaultValue()], $_->getProperties())
]) ; } } );

Emits:

array(4) {
  [0] =>
  class Vertex#3 (3) {
    public float $x =>⮒    *uninitialized*
    public float $y =>⮒    *uninitialized*
    public float $z =>⮒    *uninitialized*
  }
  [1] =>⮒  array(1) {
    'x' =>⮒    NULL
  }
  [2] =>⮒  array(1) {
    'y' =>⮒    NULL
  }
  [3] =>⮒  array(1) {
    'z' =>⮒    NULL
  }
}

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Our programming languages—true art maestros—deftly handle the canvas of syntactic sugar, providing us, fortunate souls, with a more expressive, palatable syntax.

For those in pursuit of deeper enlightenment:

• PHP RFC: Constructor Property Promotion
• PHP Mannual: Constructor Promotion
• Syntactic Sugar – Wikipedia
• Term Reference: Desugaring (desugar; transitive verb; Merriam Webster)
• https://www.craiyon.com/ – bitmap
• https://www.jetbrains.com/ – text hallicunations
• https://www.gimp.org/ – visual compositing
• https://shutter-project.org/ – screenshotting
• Epigrams in Programming by Alan J. Perlis (September 1982; ACM’s SIGPLAN)