Don't permit annotations inside variable declarations.

pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart

 // Copyright (c) 2014, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
 // for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
 // BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
 // This code was auto-generated, is not intended to be edited, and is subject to
 // significant change. Please see the README file for more information.
 
 library engine.ast;
 
 import 'dart:collection';
@@ skipping 1594 matching lines @@
       cloneNode(node.name), cloneToken(node.extendsKeyword),
       cloneNode(node.bound));
 
   @override
   TypeParameterList visitTypeParameterList(TypeParameterList node) =>
       new TypeParameterList(cloneToken(node.leftBracket),
           cloneNodeList(node.typeParameters), cloneToken(node.rightBracket));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclaration visitVariableDeclaration(VariableDeclaration node) =>
-      new VariableDeclaration(null, cloneNodeList(node.metadata),
-          cloneNode(node.name), cloneToken(node.equals),
+      new VariableDeclaration(cloneNode(node.name), cloneToken(node.equals),
           cloneNode(node.initializer));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclarationList visitVariableDeclarationList(
       VariableDeclarationList node) => new VariableDeclarationList(null,
       cloneNodeList(node.metadata), cloneToken(node.keyword),
       cloneNode(node.type), cloneNodeList(node.variables));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclarationStatement visitVariableDeclarationStatement(
@@ skipping 8543 matching lines @@
       _cloneNode(node.name), _mapToken(node.extendsKeyword),
       _cloneNode(node.bound));
 
   @override
   TypeParameterList visitTypeParameterList(TypeParameterList node) =>
       new TypeParameterList(_mapToken(node.leftBracket),
           _cloneNodeList(node.typeParameters), _mapToken(node.rightBracket));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclaration visitVariableDeclaration(VariableDeclaration node) =>
-      new VariableDeclaration(null, _cloneNodeList(node.metadata),
-          _cloneNode(node.name), _mapToken(node.equals),
+      new VariableDeclaration(_cloneNode(node.name), _mapToken(node.equals),
           _cloneNode(node.initializer));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclarationList visitVariableDeclarationList(
       VariableDeclarationList node) => new VariableDeclarationList(null,
       _cloneNodeList(node.metadata), _mapToken(node.keyword),
       _cloneNode(node.type), _cloneNodeList(node.variables));
 
   @override
   VariableDeclarationStatement visitVariableDeclarationStatement(
@@ skipping 9369 matching lines @@
   @override
   String toString() => name;
 }
 
 /**
  * An identifier that has an initial value associated with it. Instances of this
  * class are always children of the class [VariableDeclarationList].
  *
  * > variableDeclaration ::=
  * >     [SimpleIdentifier] ('=' [Expression])?
+ *
+ * TODO(paulberry): a VariableDeclaration can never be associated with a
+ * comment or metadata.  Consider changing the class hierarchy so that
+ * [VariableDeclaration] does not extend [Declaration].

[Brian Wilkerson, 2015/04/14 18:02:36]

I don't understand why we would disallow associating a comment with a variable
declaration.

[Paul Berry, 2015/04/14 18:47:13]

To clarify, we aren't disallowing comments, we're just not recording them for
dartdoc purposes (I'll update the TODO comment to make that clearer).  And the
thing we usually call a "variable declaration" in casual usage is technically a
"variable declaration list".  A "variable declaration" is the portion of a
variable declaration list that declares a single variable.  So the kind of
comment we would no longer be recording would be a comment like this:

int /** comment */ foo;

Comments that appear prior to a variable declaration list would still be
recorded for dartdoc purposes, e.g. this would still work fine:

/** comment */
int foo;

Does that change your opinion?

[Brian Wilkerson, 2015/04/14 19:00:23]

Not really. I already understood that. I just don't see any reason to not record
the data. It's probably a fairly uncommon pattern to see:

  int /** comment 1 */ x, /** comment 2 */ y;

but still, it doesn't cost enough to support it to warrant not supporting it
IMO.

  */
 class VariableDeclaration extends Declaration {
   /**
    * The name of the variable being declared.
    */
   SimpleIdentifier _name;
 
   /**
    * The equal sign separating the variable name from the initial value, or
    * `null` if the initial value was not specified.
    */
   Token equals;
 
   /**
    * The expression used to compute the initial value for the variable, or
    * `null` if the initial value was not specified.
    */
   Expression _initializer;
 
   /**
-   * Initialize a newly created variable declaration. Either or both of the
-   * [comment] and [metadata] can be `null` if the declaration does not have the
-   * corresponding attribute. The [equals] and [initializer] can be `null` if
-   * there is no initializer.
+   * Initialize a newly created variable declaration. The [equals] and
+   * [initializer] can be `null` if there is no initializer.
    */
-  VariableDeclaration(Comment comment, List<Annotation> metadata,
+  VariableDeclaration(
       SimpleIdentifier name, this.equals, Expression initializer)
-      : super(comment, metadata) {
+      : super(null, null) {
     _name = _becomeParentOf(name);
     _initializer = _becomeParentOf(initializer);
   }
 
   @override
   Iterable get childEntities => super._childEntities
     ..add(_name)
     ..add(equals)
     ..add(_initializer);
 
@@ skipping 490 matching lines @@
   }
 
   @override
   accept(AstVisitor visitor) => visitor.visitYieldStatement(this);
 
   @override
   void visitChildren(AstVisitor visitor) {
     _safelyVisitChild(_expression, visitor);
   }
 }