From 7b3aad4436b8cbd25fda2bd658ed44b3dc2c6dcc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: alandonovan <adonovan@google.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 12:54:00 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] doc: document call argument evaluation order (#118)

..now that the spec is resolved.
---
 doc/spec.md                 |  7 +++++++
 internal/compile/compile.go | 24 ++++++++++--------------
 2 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/spec.md b/doc/spec.md
index e256b249..c9cb1d49 100644
--- a/doc/spec.md
+++ b/doc/spec.md
@@ -990,6 +990,13 @@ same name, such as `f(x=1, x=2)`. A call that provides a `**kwargs`
 argument may yet have two values for the same name, such as
 `f(x=1, **dict(x=2))`. This results in a dynamic error.
 
+Function arguments are evaluated in the order they appear in the call.
+<!-- see https://github.com/bazelbuild/starlark/issues/13 -->
+
+Unlike Python, Starlark does not allow more than one `*args` argument in a
+call, and if a `*args` argument is present it must appear after all
+positional and named arguments.
+
 A function call completes normally after the execution of either a
 `return` statement, or of the last statement in the function body.
 The result of the function call is the value of the return statement's
diff --git a/internal/compile/compile.go b/internal/compile/compile.go
index 67f3ae80..6b43fbe3 100644
--- a/internal/compile/compile.go
+++ b/internal/compile/compile.go
@@ -1567,27 +1567,23 @@ func (fcomp *fcomp) args(call *syntax.CallExpr) (op Opcode, arg uint32) {
 		p++
 	}
 
-	// Python2, Python3, and Starlark-in-Java all permit named arguments
+	// Python2 and Python3 both permit named arguments
 	// to appear both before and after a *args argument:
 	//   f(1, 2, x=3, *[4], y=5, **dict(z=6))
 	//
-	// However all three implement different argument evaluation orders:
+	// They also differ in their evaluation order:
 	//  Python2: 1 2 3 5 4 6 (*args and **kwargs evaluated last)
 	//  Python3: 1 2 4 3 5 6 (positional args evaluated before named args)
-	//  Starlark-in-Java: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (lexical order)
+	// Starlark-in-Java historically used a third order:
+	//  Lexical: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (all args evaluated left-to-right)
 	//
-	// The Starlark-in-Java semantics are clean but hostile to a
-	// compiler-based implementation because they require that the
-	// compiler emit code for positional, named, *args, more named,
-	// and *kwargs arguments and provide the callee with a map of
-	// the terrain.
+	// After discussion in github.com/bazelbuild/starlark#13, the
+	// spec now requires Starlark to statically reject named
+	// arguments after *args (e.g. y=5), and to use Python2-style
+	// evaluation order. This is both easy to implement and
+	// consistent with lexical order:
 	//
-	// For now we implement the Python2 semantics, but
-	// the spec needs to clarify the correct approach.
-	// Perhaps it would be best if we statically rejected
-	// named arguments after *args (e.g. y=5) so that the
-	// Python2 implementation strategy matches lexical order.
-	// Discussion in github.com/bazelbuild/starlark#13.
+	//   f(1, 2, x=3, *[4], **dict(z=6)) # 1 2 3 4 6
 
 	// *args
 	if varargs != nil {