Proposal: Static Members

XGo introduces static members — static constants, static variables, and static methods — as type-scoped declarations distinct from global declarations and instance members.

Syntax Overview

In Normal XGo

const T.name = ...                                                   // static constant
var T.name V = ...                                                    // static variable
func T.Method(arg1 T1, arg2 T2, ..., argN TN) (ret1 R1, ..., retM RM)  // static method

In XGo Classfile

const T.name = ...    // static constant (explicit form)
const .name = ...     // static constant (shorthand form)

var T.name V = ...    // static variable (explicit form)
var .name V = ...     // static variable (shorthand form)

func T.Method(...)    // static method (explicit form)
func .Method(...)     // static method (shorthand form)

Syntax constraint: The dot (.) in T.name and .name must immediately follow the identifier with no intervening whitespace. Forms such as T .name or . name are rejected as syntax errors at parse time.

Referring to Static Members

T.Method(arg1, arg2, ..., argN)  // call static method
T.name                            // access static variable or constant

When accessing from within the same classfile, or accessing the corresponding project class from a work class, the type qualifier can be omitted:

Method(arg1, arg2, ..., argN)  // call static method (shorthand)
name                            // access static variable or constant (shorthand)

Declaration Semantics by Declaration Kind

type

type declarations are always global in both normal XGo and classfiles. There is no T.Name or .Name syntax for types.

const

In both normal XGo and classfiles, a bare name (without a type qualifier) is a global constant, not a static member.

var

Classfile restriction: A classfile may contain at most one top-level var block in total. All variable declarations — whether T.name, .name, or bare name — must appear within this single var block. A second or subsequent top-level var block is a parse-time error.

func / method

Summary Table

† A classfile may only have one top-level var block in total; all var declarations (T.name, .name, and bare name) must appear within it.