[Proposal] Short namespace syntax

[cody]

Why do we always need braces around namespaces?

It frightens me that even a simply class looks so much nested and
complicated due to this verbose namespace syntax. It also unnecessarily
increases the indentation level of *every* file. The funny thing is that I
cannot imagine one single situatation where it *could* be useful to have
more than one namespace per file.

Why not simply allow (additional to the existing syntax) simply this:

namespace MyCompany.MyProduct;

This short namespace declaration, if present, must appear only once per file
and above all other statements in the file. If someone sees this syntax he
can be sure that this file has only one namespace.

 

[Joey Lee]

Because you can multiple different namespaces?

 

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

then, you provide meaning to the file itself. The language has no
understanding of the notion of a file. All of the files in the project can
be viewed, from the standpoint of the compiler, as belonging to a single
long stream of text.

This is nearly always easier from the standpoint of the tools. The language
is more elegant and it is easier to refactor the code.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.

 

[Mattias Sjögren]

It also unnecessarily

increases the indentation level of *every* file.

You're not forced to indent the class inside the namespace block you
know.



Mattias

 

[Mattias Sjögren]

then, you provide meaning to the file itself. The language has no
understanding of the notion of a file.

The using and extern alias directives are already scoped to a single
file.



Mattias

 

[cody]

It also unnecessarily

You're not forced to indent the class inside the namespace block you
know.

I do not have to but it looks even more stupid if I have braces and do not
ident them, at the end they are still there.
However if I do not ident them visual studio does it for me.

 

[cody]

Because you can multiple different namespaces?

Did you really read my post? That was exactly my point: I know no case where
someone would actually need more than one namespace per file. In the rare
case someone actually does, the old namespace syntax can still be used.

 

[cody]

then, you provide meaning to the file itself. The language has no

The using and extern alias directives are already scoped to a single
file.

Which defeats Nick's point as a whole
Since using directives and namespaces declarations are very related they
should also be treated the same.

 

[cody]

then, you provide meaning to the file itself. The language has no

understanding of the notion of a file. All of the files in the project
can be viewed, from the standpoint of the compiler, as belonging to a
single long stream of text.

If multiple *.cs files are concatenated it won't compile because the using
directives can only appear a the beginning of the file.
Also the preprocessor first has to remove #define statements which are also
scoped per file and resolve #if #else clauses.

So even if there should be a problem with backward compatibility that the
new syntax allows namespaces declarations without braces, the preprocessor
could insert the braces automatically