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dynamic blocks

A dynamic block is a series of statements which are executed sequentially. Expressions within a dynamic block may not have Ceylon type information.

Usage 

dynamic {
    alert("hello, world");
    value status = window.status;
}

Description

The purpose of a dynamic block is to allow interoperation with dynamically typed languages in a controlled way without letting untyped values "leak" out of the block and into (typed) Ceylon code. There are a number of rules for dynamic blocks which enforce this.

Expressions with static types are checked as normal within a dynamic block. However, expressions with no type:

  • may be specified or assigned to a typed value
  • may be passed as the argument of a typed parameter in an invocation expression
  • may be the invoked expression of an invocation
  • may be returned by a typed function or getter, or thrown as an exception
  • may be the operand of an operator expression
  • may be the subject of a control structure condition, a switch, or a for iterator

Furthermore:

  • a qualified or unqualified reference may not refer to a statically typed declaration

In these situations typechecking does not happen statically (at compile time), but dynamically (at runtime) and if that runtime type checking fails an AssertionError is thrown.

See also