Global constants

[Akuli]

In C you would use #define to create constants. What should be the recommended way in Jou? Should we add new syntax, something like globalconstant FOO = 1?

I think currently the best you can do is a function that returns the value, because global variables cannot have an initial value yet. This is actually what config.jou does (see the Makefiles).

[littlewhitecloud]

Maybe
constant global variable = x
But I think we can use static keyword to mean this is a global constant or create a new one?
(I think it is not a good idea to use a long keyword

[Akuli]

Why is it not a good idea to use a long keyword? An advantage with globalconstant is that it's unlikely someone wants to make a variable named globalconstant. But I could imagine someone making a variable named constant.

We could also try const, which would be good because it's consistent with many other languages.

[littlewhitecloud]

Just think long keyword will make people feel annoying.
As you say, jou is a simple programming language, why don’t you use a shorter keyword? :)

[Akuli]

I think const foo = 123 is pretty good.

[littlewhitecloud]

I think so.

[Akuli]

Today I tried generating some Jou code with AI mostly for fun, and to see what it would do. (This usually doesn't work very well, see doc/ai-thoughts.md.) The AI guessed/used the following syntax:

# Constants
const RAND_MAX: int = 2147483647  # Maximum value for rand()