The idea is to make clear that the field `posponed` is transient
state. It is only used during `isDefEq`.
The refactoring was motivated by a bug I found where the `posponed`
constraints were not being handled correctly. For example,
the `check (e : Expr)` method was returning `true`, but leaving pending
universe constraints at `postponed`.
cc @Kha
It had to be fixed because we have code that needs to be compiled with
the old frontend, and the hacks we used to workaround this issue are
incompatible with the new frontend.
@Kha this is a little bit ugly. As in Lean3, the notation `{ }` is
overloaded. It can be `HasEmptyc.emptyc` or the empty structure.
Moreover, if we have an instance `HasEmptyc A` for a structure `A`,
then `{ }` is notation for `HasEmptyc.emptyc`. I am not very happy
about this, but it seems users use this feature. It is even used in
our own Lean4 code base :)
BTW, I will try a different alternative later.
First, move the notation `{ }` as a proper parser for `emptyc`.
Then, make sure the elaborator throws an error when
`{ }` is ambiguous. That is, `{}` can be elaborated as the empty
structure `A` and there is an `HasEmptyc A` instance.
Example:
```
structure A :=
(x : Nat := 0)
instance : HasEmptyc A :=
⟨{ x := 10 }⟩
```
The main issue here is that the support for choice+postpone is
currently broken.
@Kha it now uses the same precedence of `fun`.
The main motivation is to allow us to write `@by { ... }` instead of
`@(by { ... })`.
BTW, I am considering disabling implicit lambdas for `by ...` expressions.
It is automatically "intro"ducing the implicit variables without
giving an opportunity for users to pick their names.
@Kha This is a first attempt to improve the error message for examples
like the one Andrew Kent posted on Zulip.
I created a simpler example using "vectors".
Given
```
inductive Foo
| mk₁ (x y z w : Nat)
| mk₂ (x y z w : Nat)
```
We can now write
```
def Foo.z : Foo → Nat
| mk₁ (z := z) .. => z
| mk₂ (z := z) .. => z
```
instead of
```
def Foo.z : Foo → Nat
| mk₁ _ _ z _ => z
| mk₂ _ _ z _ => z
```
cc @Kha
