Modern Features in Peel¶

Peel has recently integrated an array of modern language features inspired by contemporary programming workflows.

Classes with Getters, Setters, and Methods¶

Peel supports class definitions with encapsulated state methods, getters, and setters. Classes provide a blueprint for creating objects, making object-oriented patterns straightforward.

class Person {
    fn init(name, age) {
        self.name = name;
        self.age = age;
    }

    get info() {
        return self.name + " (" + self.age + ")";
    }

    set info(new_age) {
        self.age = new_age;
    }

    fn greet() {
        fmt.println("Hi, I am " + self.info);
    }
}

Rest, Spread, and Default Parameters¶

Functions in Peel can now specify default parameter values to omit repetitive arguments. Additionally, rest parameters (...) collect any excess arguments into a List, and the spread operator (...) can expand Lists into function arguments or other Lists.

fn make_team(leader = "Alice", ...members) {
    fmt.println("Leader:", leader);
    fmt.println("Members:", members);
}

let extra_members = ["Charlie", "Diana"];
make_team("Bob", "Eve", ...extra_members);

Optional Chaining (?.) and Nullish Coalescing (??)¶

Working with nested values or potentially undefined fields is safer with Optional Chaining and Nullish Coalescing.

• ?. allows accessing nested fields safely. If any link is missing, it evaluates to void without throwing.
• ?? returns the right-side operand when its left side is void, None, or undefined.

let config = { settings: { theme: "dark" } };
let theme = config?.settings?.theme ?? "light";
let font = config?.settings?.font ?? "Arial";

Advanced Collections¶

Peel's standard library now offers native Map, Set, WeakMap, and WeakSet.

// Map and Set
let m = Map();
m.set("key", "value");

let s = Set();
s.add("unique");

// WeakMap and WeakSet (keys must be objects/lists)
let wm = WeakMap();
let objKey = { id: 1 };
wm.set(objKey, "data");

Generators and Iterators¶

Peel will support generators to pause and resume execution using yield combined with channels or async tasks.

// Grammar support available
yield "value";