Issue #115: Build-time arguments on a dsl block (dsl sqlite(schema: app) { … } eod)

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language, libraries, ready · opened 2026-09-30 · updated 2026-10-06 · 1 comment

Step 2 of ADR-143 §5. A dsl block takes build-time arguments, named, no ;, resolved from comptime values. The driver’s grammar then reads the schema with its own DDL grammar and refuses a missing column at the query.

Open question that decides the spelling (on docs/open-decisions.md): how a schema is bound while the program is built. ADR-143 D3 and Part III 17.1 write let app = comptime asset("schema.sql"), which the language’s own rules refuse (a let is a statement; a build-time value is declared comptime NAME: T = …, Part II 7, ADR-116). Recommendation: comptime APP: db::Schema = asset("schema.sql").

Comments

keywan-ghadami, 2026-10-05

The spelling is decided: comptime APP = asset("schema.sql") (ADR-287 D20)

How it was decided

• What was checked in the compiler.
  • let app = comptime asset("schema.sql") is refused twice. At item level: Didn’t expect let here. In a body: Expected expression here, but found comptime.
  • comptime APP = asset("schema.sql") lowers, at item level and in a body, and so does a lowercase name.
• The options weighed in the decision round:
  • (1) the declaration form the language has;
  • (2) comptime as an expression beside it;
  • (3) comptime as an expression replacing the declaration form.
• The owner chose (1): comptime stays on the left, on the name, as const/constexpr are written elsewhere. A function is never marked; whether it may run at build time is read off its ledger (ADR-287 D13, D14). The expression form would add a build-time value without a name, and a name is what ADR-299 D11 identifies a schema by.
• The schema’s type (db::Schema or text) is left to the step that builds sqlite::open (ADR-299 D9, §6).
• Found on the way and decided in the same round: ADR-287 D21, the typing of an integer comptime. It has its own issue, linked below.

Changed (0.0.508, 779b9e8)

• ADR-299 D3, D9 and D11, and the examples in Part II 10.5 and Part III 17, write comptime APP = asset("schema.sql") and schema: APP.
• Part II 10.2 says comptime marks the name and is not an expression.
• The entry has left open-decisions.md.

To build (for this issue: the dsl block’s build-time arguments)

1. dsl sqlite(schema: APP) { … } eod parses: named arguments in parentheses after the grammar’s name, no ; (ADR-299 D3, ADR-133).
2. Each argument resolves to a comptime of the surrounding scope (item level or the body). A name that is not a comptime, for example a let, is refused at the block.
3. The grammar declares which arguments it takes and their types. A missing or unknown argument is refused at the block, in the grammar’s words.
4. Tests:
   • a block naming APP reaches the grammar with the schema’s text;
   • let s = "…"; dsl sqlite(schema: s) is refused;
   • two blocks naming APP share one schema (D11).

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