Add named classes that work in use strict.

[paulmillr]

This will allow use of @constructor.__name__ for building great dynamic apps.

class Tweet
console.log Tweet.__name__
# => 'Tweet'

class View
  initialize: ->
    super
    templateName = underscorize(@constructor.__name__).replace(/_view$/, '')
    @template ?= require "./templates/#{templateName}"

class TweetView extends View

CoffeeScript 1.3.1 already uses @constructor.name for this purpose, but as we've seen, it breaks 'use strict' mode because @constructor.name is a read-only property.

Related: #494, #2052, #2249, #2250, f3a1f46.

[idflood]

The patch looks good. Waiting for this fix to be applied since I extensively "use strict".

[vendethiel]

+1 for that !

[jashkenas]

Thanks, but no thanks, for all the reasons detailed in the original ticket. We don't want to mint a new "standard" JavaScript property that works for class-defined prototypes, but not regular function-defined ones.

[paulmillr]

@jashkenas then why do we have __super__? It doesn't work for regular function-defined ones. Well, it works with additional code, but just as this one. Original ticket ended with your talk with @hornairs and merging of constructor.name patch.

P.S.
It's absolutely not needed for debugging, but it's very useful for dynamic programming.

[michaelficarra]

Dynamic programming? I don't think that term means what I think you think it means.

edit: Ah, I haven't heard this usage of the term before. Damn my algorithmic background!

[paulmillr]

@michaelficarra yea, didn't know about this one. Won't be using it in the future in the context.

edit: ✌️

[chrismcv]

coming in late on this, but the lack of a class name property is a real shame for me too.

[aseemk]

I too would love to see some classname property; we too use it to auto-detect types. __name__ doesn't seem harmful to me, much like __super__.

[karellm]

Coffeescript generated code will throw an exception (only in Safari for now) if you use use strict:

TypeError: Attempted to assign to readonly property.

The property in question is name on a code like Bla.name = 'Bla';.

Whatever the solution you want to come up with, it is a problem with coffeescript that would be nice to fix. Coffeescript should play nicely with 'use strict'.

[jashkenas]

Should be fixed in the latest version of CoffeeScript.

[paulmillr]

@karellm coffeescript doesn't generate .name since 1.3.3.

[karellm]

Thanks for the prompt answer. That must be the coffee-rails gem that hasn't updated coffeescript yet then.

Edit: Actually was up to date but I needed to edit the files to regenerate them.