Compile fails with no errors in end-user code (another "can't get started" bug)

[jcward]

Hi Juraj / Ben,

Sorry this isn't a very actionable bug report (because I cannot attach reproduction code), but I thought I'd report my experience anyway:

I was exploring and evaluating both haxe-continuation and tink_await for a nodejs http server project, and at one point while I was testing tink_await, compilation failed with the following errors. You'll notice that none of the errors point to my end-user code. As such, this error message stumped me, and I couldn't pinpoint it to any specific change, hence I became suspicious of the amount of magic happening (and that'd I'd have to support it for my team), and I eventually gave up on tink_await.

third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:48: characters 11-29 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field fatalError
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:24: characters 8-26 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field currentPos
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : Null<tink.core.Pos> should be haxe.macro.Position
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : tink.core.Pos should be haxe.macro.Position
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : haxe.PosInfos should be haxe.macro.Position
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : { methodName : String, lineNumber : Int, fileName : String, ?customParams : Null<Array<Dynamic>>, className : String } should be haxe.macro.Position
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : { methodName : String, lineNumber : Int, fileName : String, ?customParams : Null<Array<Dynamic>>, className : String } should be { min : Int, max : Int, file : String }
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : { methodName : String, lineNumber : Int, fileName : String, ?customParams : Null<Array<Dynamic>>, className : String } has no field file
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:40: characters 12-21 : For function argument 'pos'
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:38: lines 38-44 : Void should be Dynamic
third_party/tink/macro/Exprs.hx:293: characters 11-27 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field makeExpr
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:19: characters 27-41 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field typeof
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:29: characters 11-25 : Class<tink.macro.Bouncer> has no field bounce
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:51: characters 32-37 : String should be Null<tink.core.ErrorCode>
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:51: characters 32-37 : String should be tink.core.ErrorCode
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:51: characters 32-37 : For optional function argument 'code'
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:56: characters 4-19 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field warning
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:61: characters 29-35 : String should be Null<tink.core.ErrorCode>
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:61: characters 29-35 : String should be tink.core.ErrorCode
third_party/tink/macro/Positions.hx:61: characters 29-35 : For optional function argument 'code'
third_party/tink/macro/Types.hx:20: characters 13-28 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getType
third_party/tink/macro/Types.hx:150: characters 11-25 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field follow
third_party/tink/macro/Types.hx:92: characters 27-67 : Class<haxe.macro.TypeTools> has no field applyTypeParameters
third_party/tink/macro/Types.hx:97: characters 17-35 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field currentPos
third_party/tink/macro/Exprs.hx:349: characters 16-30 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field typeof
third_party/tink/macro/Types.hx:189: characters 20-40 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getLocalType
third_party/tink/macro/Exprs.hx:50: characters 14-32 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field currentPos
third_party/tink/macro/Exprs.hx:66: characters 12-31 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getPosInfos
third_party/tink/macro/TypeMap.hx:28: characters 24-35 : haxe.macro.Type has no field toString
third_party/tink/macro/TypeMap.hx:28: characters 39-50 : haxe.macro.Type has no field toString
third_party/tink/MacroApi.hx:37: characters 11-40 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field currentPos
third_party/tink/macro/ClassBuilder.hx:23: characters 15-36 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getLocalClass
third_party/tink/macro/ClassBuilder.hx:26: characters 15-37 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getBuildFields
third_party/tink/macro/ClassBuilder.hx:66: characters 25-45 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field getTypedExpr
third_party/tink/macro/ClassBuilder.hx:68: characters 26-35 : You can't iterate on a Dynamic value, please specify Iterator or Iterable
third_party/tink/macro/ClassBuilder.hx:114: characters 8-23 : Class<haxe.macro.Context> has no field warning
third_party/tink/syntaxhub/FrontendContext.hx:10: characters 0-21 : You cannot access the sys package while targeting js (for sys.FileSystem)
third_party/tink/syntaxhub/FrontendPlugin.hx:5: characters 38-53 :     referenced here

Beyond that, my experience has been that haxe-continuation is much easier to integrate, lighter weight (fewer dependencies), and just works for native JS functions with their natural callback signatures. It's a shame it doesn't support error handling / try / catch. But I suppose I could maybe hack something together.

Maybe I have one actionable item: The tink_await docs / examples don't readily show how to wrap a native JS function, handling error and success. The only example I found was a trivial timeout. I hacked around to get this hideous monstrosity:

  static function oauth_helper(oauth2Client:OAuth2, code:String)
  {
    return Future.async(function(cb) {
      oauth2Client.getToken(code, function(err:{}, tokens:{}) {
        if (err!=null) {
          // Weird, I have to wrap err in data... twice. Probably due
          // to the dynamic catch. Hmm...
          cb(Failure({ data:{ data:err } }));
          // cb(Success(null)); // Doesn't require try/catch...
        } else {
          cb(Success(tokens));
        }
      });
    });
  }

[jcward]

FYI, this is the lovely JS callback (and faux multi-var assignment) that haxe-continuation implements:

And all this requires is a typical extern definition:

[kevinresol]

Usually I encounter this or similar error when I forgot to wrap using tink.MacroApi with #if macro. Is it your case?

[kevinresol]

If it is not by you, maybe you can try updating all your tink libraries to latest git version. Otherwise can you show the versions of your tink libraries?

[jcward]

It might have had something to do with conflicting using tink.CoreApi and import <something else> -- I vaguely trying to use the macro API in the same file ask Tink, and it exploded.

I tried again to create some wrapper to get the syntax I wanted out of Tink, and also exploring the exception handling. But again I failed to get to a workable API.

Ah well. Perhaps it's simply not for me.