[Xotcl] Mixins in XOTcl

[Uwe Zdun]

Hi Adam,

I agree that mixinappend is not always the best choice; I had this 
problem once
in one of my projects as well. I remember that I once wanted to
introduce {inst}[mixin|filter]prepend, but obviously haven't done it ... to
introduce the following in the next  XOTcl version should be no problem, 
I think:

::xotcl::Object instproc filterprepend f {
  ::xotcl::my filter [concat $f [::xotcl::my info filter -guards]]
}
::xotcl::Object instproc mixinprepend m {
  ::xotcl::my mixin [concat $m [::xotcl::my info mixin]]
}
::xotcl::Class instproc instfilterprepend f {
  ::xotcl::my instfilter [concat $f [::xotcl::my info instfilter -guards]]
}
::xotcl::Class instproc instmixinprepend m {
  ::xotcl::my instmixin [concat $m [::xotcl::my info instmixin]]
}
 
--uwe



Adam Turoff wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I'm a long-time Perl programmer who recently started using
>XOTcl on a new
>project.  Support for mixins has been a tremendous boon for
>productivity
>on this project.
>
>However, the standard idioms for managing mixins (mixin and
>mixinappend) both
>feel a little broken.  For example, with "obj mixin
>list_of_classes", I need
>to know the full set of mixins for an object (or a class)
>each time I mutate it.
>Using mixinappend helps, but appending new classes to the
>end of the mixin
>list seems wrong, because the newly added classes will be
>found *last*.
>
>Here is why I think these idioms don't work well: in most
>other languages, an
>object is created through successive refinement.  In
>C++/Java, we start with a
>base class and derive more and more specific variants on
>that definition through
>subclassing.  I use XSLT a lot, and in XSLT, the most
>specific templates are
>found after templates of lesser specificity.  Surely there
>are other examples;
>these are just the first two that come to my mind.  The
>underlying idiom seems
>universal, at least to me.
>
>To remedy this, I've added this primitive into my system.
>Suggestions for better
>names greatfully appreciated:
>
>      Object instproc insert_mixin {mixin_list} {
>         my mixin [append mixin_list " " [my info mixin]]
>      }
>
>With this new operation, I can now derive an object through
>mixins in a very
>natural manner:
>
>      Car mycar
>      mycar insert_mixin Volkswagen
>      mycar insert_mixin NewBeetle
>      mycar insert_mixin AutomaticTransmission
>      mycar insert_mixin Turbo
>      mycar insert_mixin WasabiGreen
>      ....
>
>If I were to start calling methods like "max_rpm",
>"engine_size", "color",
>or "transmission", they can all get intercepted at the right
>point in the
>mixin chain, wrapping/superceding more generic methods.
>Instant separation
>of concerns.  ;-)
>
>Additionally, I can dynamically refine my object:
>
>      if {$add_roof_rack} {
>            mycar insert_mixin RoofRack
>      }
>
>      if {$has_sunroof} {
>            mycar insert_mixin SunRoof
>      }
>
>
>Thanks for the excellent programming environment.  Hope this
>helps,
>
>-- Adam
>
>
>
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