typedef for simple type aliases

[rakudrama]

In the dom library there are several types which are sum (union) types.

IDBKey and SerializedScriptValue are two examples - both include numbers, strings and JavaScript arrays (Lists) among other things, and neither includes functions or arbitrary user defined types.

We are forced to use Dynamic for these types.
If typedef could do a simple renaming we could generate more readable interfaces.

e.g.

interface IDBFactory {
   int cmp(Dynamic first, Dynamic second);
}

could become

/** Documentation about IDBKey in one place. */
typedef IDBKey = Dynamic;

interface IDBFactory {
   int cmp(IDBKey first, IDBKey second);   // Tools can navigate to the definition.
}

[gbracha]

Clearly typedefs should allow type aliasing for all types. I hope we can fix this soon.

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Set owner to @gbracha.
Added Accepted label.

[gbracha]

See also bug 84.

[gbracha]

Added this to the Later milestone.

[rakudrama]

See Issue #6292 for another example.
Lack of simple typedef continues to be an impediment.

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cc @larsbak.

[DartBot]

This comment was originally written by george.moscho...@gmail.com

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Any ETA wrt type aliasing for all types? Will this make 1.0?

[kasperl]

Removed this from the Later milestone.
Added Oldschool-Milestone-Later label.

[kasperl]

Removed Oldschool-Milestone-Later label.

[rkj]

Any updates? Will it be ever possible? We have some long classes names that are really awkward to use (to the point where it's impossible to fit the case statement on single line), and aliasing them to an abbreviation would greatly help.

[korsvanloon]

I could really use typedefs for aliasing my long generic classes like so:

class Something<A,B,C,D,E> { }

typedef Something<Foo, Bar, Baz, Qux, Quux> SomethingFoo;