Deprecate Enum Methods in Favor of Dart’s Upcoming Enum Shorthand

[tilucasoli]

Description

Currently, Mix relies on custom enum methods to define and access specific values. However, the Dart language team is planning to introduce enum shorthand syntax, which will provide a more native way to handle enum values without requiring additional methods.

Maintaining custom enum methods after this update would lead to unnecessary, as this custom methods were implemented to simplify the usage.

Proposed Changes

1. Deprecate all existing enum methods across Mix.
2. Remove the need for @MixableEnumUtility() annotation, as enum shorthand will provide a more concise syntax.
3. Reduce the number of functions in the API, making the framework easier to maintain and lowering support costs.

Before

$flex.direction.horizontal()

After

$flex.direction(Axis.horizontal)

Future with Enum Shorthand

$flex.direction(.horizontal)

Impact Analysis

Benefits

• Removes unnecessary custom methods declaration and will align with future Dart lang futures. It will improve the maintainability due to the decreasing of methods

Potential Drawbacks

• Breaking Changes for Existing Codebases
• Dependence on Dart’s Enum Shorthand Timeline.

Implementation Plan

Tasks

• Remove the @MixableEnumUtility annotation and all the code gen related
• Guarantee that all enum attributes are implementing the call method with the respective enum parameter
• Update Documentation

Testing Strategy

There is no specific strategy

Additional Considerations

Boolean Attributes

Currently, boolean attributes utilize a specific utility that implements .on and .off methods. We propose removing these methods in favor of a more straightforward implementation that aligns with the new enum format. This change align the syntax.
Proposed Changes:

Before

text.textHeightBehavior.heightToLastDescent.on(),

After

$text.textHeightBehavior.heightToLastDescent(true),