Error parsing {string[]=} array with GCC optional notation

[yvele]

Following gajus/eslint-plugin-jsdoc#494

Parsing {string[]=} throws an error:

Syntax Error
Expected "...", "/", "[", "|", [ \t], [\n], [\r], or end of input but "=" found.

Note that as a workaround one can wrap the type with parenthesis {(string[])=} but it looks very unnecessary 🤷‍♂

[brettz9]

The docs at https://github.com/google/closure-compiler/wiki/Types-in-the-Closure-Type-System#optional do not speak to the issue of whether parentheses are required. I don't think the format of string[]= would provide any ambiguities (so as to call for parentheses) since it seems clear it referring to the whole array as optional (and not to it meaning that it could be a plain string, with the arrayness being optional), so this proposed change makes sense to me.

[brettz9]

@yvele : While I am waiting a reply from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60578125/does-closure-support-jsdoc-array-syntax-like-string , in looking at catharsis, the type parser for jsdoc (which also, when disabling "jsdoc" mode, can support Closure), you can see that at least it believes that Closure doesn't support even the string[] syntax without the optional operator:

var jsdocType = 'string[]';  // Closure Compiler expects Array.<string>

And indeed when I test it on Runkit, Catharsis will complain about this unless I add the "jsdoc" option mode.

I don't know if this could be out-of-date, though, so if I don't hear back on Stackoverflow, maybe we can file an issue with Closure.

As far as the optional = modifier , in testing on Runkit (see at https://runkit.com/brettz9/5e63ae5e0b919b0020ed7fe1 ), I see that the parentheses are necessary even in the jsdoc mode which permits the string[] syntax:

var catharsis = require("catharsis")
catharsis.parse('(string[])=', {jsdoc: true});

...since if you change this to remove the parentheses, an error will be thrown instead of the parsed result that is returned here.

(If you like, there is also the grammar source for Catharsis: https://github.com/hegemonic/catharsis/blob/master/lib/parser.pegjs )