Sequences: JavaFX Script's Next Challenge?

I was doing some JavaFX hacking, and I had to create a sequence initially full of zeros. How can you do that? There's apparently only one way: var bits = for (i in [1..64]) (0 as Long); Problems: First, I need a loop - OK, a comprehension - to initialize the sequence. There is no syntax, no API helper or type constructor, that directly expresses "Long[] with N elements". I could use a literal like [0, 0, 0, 0, ...], but this doesn't scale to large sizes. Second, I have to write the (0 as Long), because JavaFX Script doesn't support Java's type suffixes like 0L for zero-as-Long. JavaFX Script drops many complexities from Java; but dropping the numeric type suffixes looks like a wrong move. I mean, it's not like Long numbers are some niche feature. And 0 as Long is butt-ugly. JavaFX Script should try being as close to Java as reasonably possible, given their different design criteria. I'm OK with big diffs like no generic types (don't fit in FX's complexity budget), different attribute and method/function declarations (required by FX-specific features), and most other changes. But numeric literals is something I'd expect FX to just clone from Java. It's also missing Java 5's hexadecimal FP, and will soon miss Java 7's underscores and binary base (I'd vote to add all these in FX 1.4). These are compile-time features, no cost of any kind. You don't need it, you don&#...

Date: June, 18 2010
Url: http://www.java.net/blog/opinali/archive/2010/06/18/sequences-javafx-scripts-next-challenge

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