I'm trying to write a CommonJS declaration file for Bluebird, a promise library that directly exports a generic Promise class. However, the library also exports several other generic classes as static members (PromiseInspection), and it seems like its impossible to model this with typescript.
Edit: Usage example, to illustrate how the module's exported class works:
import Promise = require('bluebird');
var promise:Promise<number> = Promise.cast(5);
var x:Promise.PromiseInspection<number> = promise.inspect();
I tried several strategies - simplified examples follow:
declare module "bluebird" {
class PromiseInspection<T> {
// ...
}
class Promise<T> {
PromiseInspection: typeof PromiseInspection; // error
constructor<T>();
inspect():PromiseInspection<T>; // error
static cast<U>(value:U):Promise<U>;
// ...
}
export = Promise;
}
Fails with the error unable to use private type PromiseInspection
as a public property
declare module "bluebird2" {
interface PromiseInspection<T> {
// ...
}
interface Promise<T> {
constructor<T>();
inspect():PromiseInspection<T>;
}
interface PromiseStatic {
new<T>();
PromiseInspection:typeof PromiseInspection;
cast<U>(value:U):Promise<U>; // error
}
export = PromiseStatic;
}
Also fails similarly, but this time the private type is Promise
declare module "bluebird3" {
export interface PromiseInspection<T> {
// ...
}
export interface Promise<T> {
constructor<T>();
inspect():PromiseInspection<T>;
}
export new<T>(); // syntax error
export function cast<U>(value:U):Promise<U>;
}
This almost works, except of course its impossible to a constructor function that way.
interface PromiseInspection<T> {
// ...
}
interface Promise<T> {
constructor<T>();
inspect():PromiseInspection<T>;
}
declare module "bluebird4" {
interface PromiseStatic {
new<T>():Promise<T>;
PromiseInspection: typeof PromiseInspection;
cast<U>(value:U):Promise<U>;
}
export = PromiseStatic;
}
Works, but it pollutes the global namespace with both Promise and PromiseInspection. This might be okay but I'd rather avoid it as in CommonJS its usually considered unacceptable.
declare module "bluebird5" {
module Promise {
export interface PromiseInspection<T> {
value(): T;
// ...
}
export
function cast<U>(value: U): Promise<U> ;
}
class Promise<T> {
new <T> (): Promise <T> ;
inspect(): Promise.PromiseInspection <T> ;
}
export = Promise;
}
Almost there - except that now I'm not allowed to replace class Promise<T>
with interface Promise<T>
, making Promise<T>
unextendable. If I try to do it, the following code:
import Promise = require('bluebird');
var x = new Promise<number>();
x.inspect().value().toExponential();
fails with the error "Invalid 'new' expression"
Link to the actual, work-in-progress bluebird.d.ts - this one currently pollutes the global namespace (uses solution 4)
Is there a better way to do this, or did I hit a language limitation?
Anders Hejlsberg posted an answer on CodePlex, so I'm going to add it here. The declaration merging solution was close - but I also needed a "var" declaration to declare the static interface as it is the only one that can accept a constructor function.
declare module "bluebird" {
module Promise {
export interface PromiseInspection<T> {
value(): T;
}
}
interface Promise<T> {
inspect(): Promise.PromiseInspection <T> ;
}
var Promise: {
new<U>(): Promise<U>;
cast<U>(value: U): Promise<U> ;
}
export = Promise;
}
So basically:
Also, his comment:
Writing it this way you have a separate declaration for each of the three meanings of the identifier Promise: As a namespace (a module containing only types), as a type (that happens to be generic), and as a value.
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