Besides the ordinary ES5-like function declarations, utpl supports ES6 inspired arrow function syntax as well. Such arrow functions are useful for callbacks to functions such as replace(), map() or filter(). -- Expect stdout -- () => { ... } test (a, b) => { ... } 3 (...args) => { ... } 15 (a) => { ... } 10 (a) => { ... } 36 -- End -- -- Testcase -- {% // assign arrow function to variable test1_fn = () => { return "test"; }; // assign arrow function with parameters test2_fn = (a, b) => { return a + b; }; // nesting functions is legal test3_fn = (...args) => { nested_fn = (a, b) => { return a * b; }; return args[0] + nested_fn(args[0], args[1]); }; // parentheses may be omitted if arrow function takes only one argument test4_fn = a => { a * 2; }; // curly braces may be omitted if function body is a single expression test5_fn = a => a * a; print(join("\n", [ test1_fn, test1_fn(), test2_fn, test2_fn(1, 2), test3_fn, test3_fn(3, 4), test4_fn, test4_fn(5), test5_fn, test5_fn(6) ]), "\n"); %} -- End -- While the main advantage of arrow functions is the compact syntax, another important difference to normal functions is the "this" context behaviour - arrow functions do not have an own "this" context and simply inherit it from the outer calling scope. -- Expect stdout -- this is set to obj: true arrow function uses outher this: true normal function has own this: true arrow function as method has no this: true -- End -- -- Testcase -- {% obj = { method: function() { let that = this; let arr = () => { print("arrow function uses outher this: ", that == this, "\n"); }; let fn = function() { print("normal function has own this: ", that != this, "\n"); }; print("this is set to obj: ", this == obj, "\n"); arr(); fn(); }, arrowfn: () => { print("arrow function as method has no this: ", this == null, "\n"); } }; obj.method(); obj.arrowfn(); %} -- End -- Due to the difficulty of recognizing arrow function expressions with an LR(1) grammar the parser has to use a generic expression rule on the lhs argument list and verify that it does not contain non-label nodes while building the ast. The subsequent testcase asserts that case. -- Expect stderr -- Syntax error: Unexpected token Expecting ';' In line 2, byte 10: ` (a + 1) => { print("test\n") }` Near here --^ -- End -- -- Testcase -- {% (a + 1) => { print("test\n") } %} -- End --