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Add some docs about ObserveField namespace caveats #1513

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TwitchBronBron merged 1 commit into from
Jun 13, 2025
Merged

Add some docs about ObserveField namespace caveats #1513

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15 changes: 15 additions & 0 deletions docs/namespaces.md
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Expand Up @@ -161,3 +161,18 @@ sub Vertibrates_Reptiles_Hiss()
end sub
```
</details>


## Caveats
### ObserveField and ObserveFieldScoped
It's incredibly difficult for brighterscript to know when it's safe to transpile strings that happen to look like namespace names. As such, the `ObserveField` and `ObserveFieldScoped` functions in BrighterScript do not automatically transpile string-based function names into their BrightScript-compatible underscore format.

This means that if you pass a namespaced identifier as a string (i.e `Vertibrates.Birds.Quack`) it will not be converted to `Vertibrates_Birds_Quack` during transpilation. Developers need to ensure they manually provide the transpiled function name when using these functions to avoid runtime errors (i.e. `Vertibrates_Birds_Quack`).

```brighterscript
'this does not work
m.top.observeField("someField", "Vertibrates.Birds.Quack")

'you need to do this instead
m.top.observeField("someField", "Vertibrates_Birds_Quack")
```