#import "file" without list of names should err/warn

[kornelski]

Import with a file path, but without a list of names, "fails" silently:

#import "common.wgsl"

This syntax is very similar to C's #include that just imports everything, so I did not think of specifying individual type names, and was puzzled why this directive doesn't seem to do anything, and doesn't even cause a compilation error.

[robtfm]

It would make sense for this to be an “unused” warning.

It isn’t failing, it’s just not necessary since we added the ability to refer to fully qualified items without importing.

If you don’t import any items you’re importing the module, which means you can use items from it with mod::item syntax. But since you can refer to fully qualified items directly there’s never a need to import top-level modules. It can still be useful to import nested modules (#import a::b and then b::item).
we also don’t currently support import mod::* which is what you want from the sounds of it. That’s also something I’d like to add in future.

[robtfm]

Oh, also to note, particularly for custom bevy shaders which are quoted like your “common.wgsl” it’s useful to alias them - #import “common.wgsl” as common and let x = common::func() is nicer than having let x = “common.wgsl”::func() which is pretty clunky.

[kornelski]

I didn't even know such syntax existed. The readme doesn't explain the "file" case.

[robtfm]

Which bit is not explained? I thought it was all in there.

[kornelski]

The readme has examples for #import predefined::name, but zero uses of #import "./path".

https://docs.rs/naga_oil/ has nothing about imports and looks empty.

[robtfm]

Ah, right. The treatment/resolution of quoted names is bevy-specific, naga oil itself doesn’t treat quoted names any differently.

[kornelski]

Do you think naga should get a first-class support for path names, or should complain about handling of these to Bevy?