Thingy OO with classes

Brian Theado 04Aug03 - Thingy: a one-liner OO system implements an object system that reminds me of XOTcl objects. Here I take a stab at adding classes to thingy. Functionality is shared between the various objects and classes by using the namespace import functionality.

XOTcl has two main commands: Object and Class. The Object command creates objects and the Class command creates object creator commands. These object creator commands can have methods (instprocs) attached to them.

XOTcl has a wealth of features few of which are implemented here. No inheritance, no filters, no mixins, etc.

Thingy: a one-liner OO system inspires the following function that behaves very similar to XOTcl's Object command.

 proc createPrimitiveObject name {
    set name [string map {:::: ::} [uplevel 1 namespace current]::$name]
    proc $name args "namespace eval $name \$args"
    return $name
 }

# The procedures in the objectmethods namespace will be inherited by all objects
 namespace eval objectmethods {}

Procedures always execute within the namespace in which they are defined even when they are imported into other namespaces. In order to find which namespace the procedure was actually called from, a combination of uplevel and namespace which can do the trick. Thanks to Mark G. Saye on c.l.t [1] for this tip.

 proc objectmethods::self {} {
    # Case 1: namespace eval Object --> somemethod --> self
    set proc [lindex [info level -1] 0]
    set level 2
    if {$proc == "namespace"} {
        # Case2: namespace eval Object --> self
        incr level -1
        set proc [lindex [info level 0] 0]
    }
    return [namespace qualifiers [uplevel $level [list namespace which -command $proc]]]
 }
 proc objectmethods::destroy {} {
    set self [self]
    namespace delete $self
    rename $self ""
 }
 namespace eval objectmethods {namespace export *}

# The procedures in classmethods will be inherited by all class objects and should include all the object procedures as well
 namespace eval classmethods "namespace import [namespace current]::objectmethods::self"
 proc classmethods::create {name} {
    set name [uplevel 2 createPrimitiveObject $name]
    namespace eval [self]::instprocs {} ;# Make sure the namespace exists
    $name namespace import [self]::instprocs::* 
    return $name
 }
 proc classmethods::instproc {name arglist body} {
    namespace eval [self]::instprocs {} ;# Make sure the namespace exists
    proc [self]::instprocs::$name $arglist $body
    namespace eval [self]::instprocs "namespace export $name"
 }
 namespace eval classmethods {namespace export *}

An object is-a class

The child namespace "instproc" is used to store those methods that will be inherited by instances

 createPrimitiveObject Object
 namespace eval Object "
    namespace import [namespace current]::objectmethods::*
    namespace import -force [namespace current]::classmethods::*
    "
 namespace eval Object::instprocs "
    namespace import [namespace current]::objectmethods::*
    namespace export *
    "

Class is an object that creates classes
Class should itself be a class
A class is an object that creates objects with a pre-defined set of methods
Not sure if I have this right (the way xotcl does it). Thinking about it is making my head spin. The behavior of some simple examples seems ok.

 createPrimitiveObject Class
 namespace eval Class "
    namespace import [namespace current]::objectmethods::*
    namespace import -force [namespace current]::classmethods::*
    "
 namespace eval Class::instprocs "
    namespace import [namespace current]::objectmethods::*
    namespace import -force [namespace current]::classmethods::*
    namespace export *
    "

Create for the Class object is slightly different--it must also propagate the object methods to the created class's instproc namespace, so override it's definition here.

 Class proc create name {
    set newClass [uplevel Object create $name]
    namespace eval $newClass {
        namespace import -force ::classmethods::*
    }
    namespace eval ${newClass}::instprocs {
        namespace import ::objectmethods::*
        namespace export *
    }
    return $newClass
 }

Features that would be nice to have:

Lot's more introspection
Automatic propagation of new instprocs to existing instances
Ability to define procs and instprocs called "unknown" to behave like Tcl's global unknown procedure. This would allow for easy delegation functionality
Constructors via init

Example code edit

 Class create Bagel
 Bagel create abagel
 abagel self
 abagel set toasted 0
 abagel info vars
 info vars abagel::*
 abagel set toasted
 abagel destroy
 Bagel instproc toast {} {
    [self] incr toasted
    if {[[self] set toasted] > 1} {
        error "something's burning!"
    }
    return
 }
 Bagel create abagel
 abagel set toasted 0
 abagel toast
 abagel toast

Category Object Orientation