Don't permit annotations inside variable declarations.

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

Index: pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart
diff --git a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart
index 909400d3a8e3f151dd3f1f576165795b7b1769ed..94e89eb02a7ffe342b37ec6810725970282236d6 100644
--- a/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart
+++ b/pkg/analyzer/lib/src/generated/ast.dart
@@ -1612,8 +1612,7 @@ class AstCloner implements AstVisitor<AstNode> {
 
   @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
@@ -10177,8 +10176,7 @@ class IncrementalAstCloner implements AstVisitor<AstNode> {
 
   @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
@@ -19568,6 +19566,10 @@ class UriValidationCode {
  *
  * > 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 {
   /**
@@ -19588,14 +19590,12 @@ class VariableDeclaration extends Declaration {
   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);
   }