[vqoxpezv] Omitting named function arguments

Consider a programming language whose syntax for function calls requires naming each passed argument, but as a benefit for this extra verbosity, allows specifying the arguments in any order:

f { foo = 3, bar = True, baz = "hello" }

If an argument is omitted, there are several things that could happen, depending on how the language is defined.

1. Compile time error.
2. It becomes a partial function application, a lambda function of the missing arguments.  Haskell does this with currying when trailing arguments are omitted.  (Tangentially, in Haskell, creating a lambda for a missing argument that is not the last one requires a little bit more work.)
3. The missing arguments get silently assigned a lazy "undefined" value, which results in a run-time error if the "undefined" is ever evaluated.
4. The language permits the function definition to provide default values to some omitted arguments.  If there is no default value, then compile-time error.  C++ does this.

It would be nice if a language could provide all of these options, even though strictly speaking they are mutually exclusive.

An imperfect solution is to have special keywords invoking #2, #3 and #4, perhaps something like f { foo = 3, REST UNDEFINED } or REST DEFAULT or REST LAMBDA, explicitly indicating indicating what do with the rest of arguments omitted at a call site.

I have seen default values implemented in Haskell using its typeclass mechanism, e.g., configuration values in xmonad.  Default values are overridden using record modification syntax.

A hybrid between #1 and #4 would have the compiler always produce an error if arguments are missing, but indicate in the compile error that a default value is available via an explicit keyword (as above) when one is.

A list of named parameters and their values looks kind of like a record or struct.  Make such a list a real type and allow variables of that type to be declared and assigned.  A special syntax allows invoking a function with a record instead of a named argument list.  If two functions have the same named parameters, are their parameter record types the same?  Duck typing.

This scheme also gets​ messy when arguments may be omitted; we need to be able to define record types with only a subset of the parameters of a function, as well as possibly allowing REST UNDEFINED or REST DEFAULT as dynamic values in the record.  If using REST LAMBDA, and whether a record field is defined is only known dynamically, then type checking and kind checking has to be postponed until run-time.

One of the things that makes me uneasy about Haskell record syntax is the following: REST UNDEFINED (#3) occurs implicitly when records are constructed whereas REST LAMBDA (#2) occurs when omitting trailing arguments when using positional constructors.  The latter will usually cause a type checking error if the argument was omitted accidentally whereas the former waits for a run-time error.

Previously: Same idea.

Having to specify a function name as well as all its parameter names might become tedious for the programmer.  Perhaps have mechanisms for a programmer to define alternate parameter names or omit a name.  Vaguely related: by type.