Make operator methods annotation based instead of ...

# language-proposals

[Eric Ou]

Make operator methods annotation based instead of name based, as to allow customizable naming of methods, perhaps someone would like their * to call multiply instead of times , and operator fun times(other: A) = multiply(other) is just more boilerplate. Something like

@Operator(TIMES)
fun multiply(other: A) {
    //...
}

would be cool :D.

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

So when compiler meets code x * y it should enumerate all possible names for functions, lookup for them and check that there is some function with corresponding annotation?
It will take infinite time

[Eric Ou]

Hmm, why can't methods be looked up via annotations the same way they are with names?

[Starr]

the compile checks for method signatures are much more stringent than for annotations, and that specificity is needed here. besides, it would break java interop (that apropriately-named java methods are usable as operators)

[Eric Ou]

Ah right, that's a thing as well. Though I feel like there still should be a way to make methods which behave the same way as operator methods but aren't limited to the naming scheme of the operator methods 🤔

[Starr]

just make two methods, one calling another?

[Eric Ou]

Boilerplate though ;-;(as mentioned in the original message, might I add)

[dmitriy.novozhilov]

You can write compiler plugin, which will generate operators for you

[Oliver.O]

If people start to rename standard methods, they will slow down others who are trying to figure out what's going on. Kotlin could become a write-only language, and we already have these.