Unions in Vala

I’ve started to use Kotlin professionally, and keeping an eye on Rust. Both offer a lot of niceties that I wish we could adapt for Vala, but there’s one that keeps popping up my mind everytime: pattern matching.

The simplest pattern matching we have is C unions, and a lot of c-libs use them. Unfortunately, the current handling of unions in Vala is a disgrace, and there’s no alternative for it. But I believe we can import some syntax from both Kotlin and Rust. Here is my proposal of how should unions work in Vala:

//Opening a bracket defines an "anonymous struct"
public union OrderStatus {
	ACCEPTED,
	CANCELLED {string reason, string cancelled_by},
	REJECTED {string reason},
	COMPLETED {DateTime completed_at}
	ON_HOLD {string reason, Datetime until}
}

when (order.status) {
	ACCEPTED -> info("Cool!");
	CANCELLED -> debug(@"Not okay, it was cancelled because of $(it.reason) by $(it.cancelled_by)");
	REJECTED as that -> info (@"Rejected: $that.reason");
	default -> error("What is this?? There's no implicit \"it\" here because it's a catch-all!")
}

public union NestedUnion {
	SIMPLE,
	union COMPLEX {
		SOFT,
		HARD{string reason}
	}
}

//The additional field belongs to the wrapping struct

public union ComplexUnion {
	FIRST,
	SECOND,
	THIRD {string reason};
	//parent field, children cannot have a field with the same name
	uint32 timestamp;
}

//Maybe this is not a good idea

public union VeryComplex {
	FIRST {
		override void run() {
			log("Uy!")
		}
	},
	SECOND {
		override void run() {
			log("Ouch!");
		}
	},
	THIRD {
		override void run() {
			log("Ay!");
		}
		override void do() {
			debug ("Yay!");
		}
	}
	
	//They are all required to implement it!
	abstract void run();
	
	//Optionally overriden
	virtual void do() {
		
	}
	//Can't touch this
	public void execute() {
	}
}

//In this case, they reuse existing datatypes

public union ExternalUnion {
	STRING(string),
	NUMBER(uint64),
	THINGY(GLib.Object)
}

public void method () {
	var order = new Order(OrderStatus.ON_HOLD("reason", DateTime.now()));
	var other_order = new Order(OrderStatus.CANCELLED(cancelled_by = "desiderantes", reason = "who knows!")); 
	
	var nested = NestedUnion.COMPLEX.HARD(reason = "no reason at all");
	//when can return a value, but all branches should return the same type
	//this when in particular is exhaustive, so no default needed, but if you return a value from when, you have to either
	//cover all cases or have a default branch
	
	NestedUnion another_nested = get_from_network();
	var reason = when (another_nested) {
		SIMPLE -> "Just because";
		COMPLEX -> when (it) {
			SOFT -> "Really easy";
			//if not renamed, then you'll lose access to the it from outer context, as it'll be shadowed
			HARD as that -> that.reason;
		}
	}
	
	//This errors
	var complex = ComplexUnion(123456789);
	var complex = ComplexUnion();
	var complex = ComplexUnion.FIRST();

	//This should work
	var complex = ComplexUnion.THIRD(123456789, "I can");
	var complex = ComplexUnion.THIRD(reason = "Just because", timestamp = 321654987);
	
	
	when (complex) {
		//properties from the parent are only accesible from the parent reference, no implicit parent var
		FIRST -> debug(@"$(complex.timestamp)");
		SECOND -> debug ("Oops");
		THIRD -> debug @("$(complex.timestamp) by $(it.reason)");
	}
	
	var external = ExternalUnion.STRING("this string is required");
}

The internal structure (C-wise) of my proposed tagged union is not anything new, it has been done a lot before in C land (here is an explanation from the Rust viewpoint)

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