anybody doing a class tree in Dart? - class

Darts Mirrors are for me currently poorly documented and very difficult to experiment with - they behave differently in code than from within the console.
for my own use, I would love to be able to treat classes (Types) as a trees, with a node being something like:
class Node {
type ... <== Type itself
name ... <== name of current class
super ... <== super of this class, eg, extends super
mixins ... <== mixins used to build this Type
extendChildren ... <== Types for which this type is super
mixinChildren ... <== Types for which this type is a mixin
}
for the life of me, I cannot get something this basic out of current Mirrors. hoping that somebody smarter than me has given it a shot!!

Below is a simple example which prints the name of the superclass and the name of Foo's members.
Note that the API uses Symbols, not strings. These are required so that dart2js can minify code that uses mirrors, they're a bit of a pain, but they mean that your code will run cross browser, and be compact.
To convert between symbols and strings see MirrorSystem.getName() and MirrorSystem.getSymbol() (Actually I believe you can just use new Symbol('foo') now).
Also note a new feature was recently added giving a special literal syntax for symbols. Up until recently you needed to type const Symbol('foo'), now just #foo, you may see a mix of old an new when looking at examples.
See this article for more information about mirrors.
Warning - probably a few typos in the example.
import 'dart:mirrors';
class Bob {
}
class Foo extends Bob {
String bar = 'jim';
}
main() {
var classMirror = reflectClass(Foo);
print(MirrorSystem.getName(classMirror.superClass.simpleName));
classMirror.declarations.values.forEach((d) => print(MirrorSystem.getName(d.simpleName)));
}
Update: Based on what Alan said below (Also untested):
Example source:
library foo;
class B extends A {
}
class A {
}
Definition:
List<ClassMirror> findSubClasses(Symbol libraryName, ClassMirror superClass) =>
currentMirrorSystem().findLibrary(libraryName).declarations.values
.where((d) => d is ClassMirror
&& d.superClass.simpleName == superClass.simpleName);
Usage:
var cm = reflectClass(A);
var subclasses = findSubClasses(#foo, cm);
There is a #MirrorsUsed attribute that you may want to experiment with if you're interested on compiling to js. It's still experimental so expect this to change.

Related

#JSGlobalScope in scala.js 1.0 (JavaScriptException, ReferenceError, var is not defined)

After migrating from scala.js 0.6.x to 1.0, I've got some code related to #JSGlobalScope broken.
My use case is like this:
there's a 3rd-party library that expects some global var to be set to a function
when loaded and ready, it calls this function (by name)
I set this function in global scope from scala.js
The code looks like this:
#js.native
#JSGlobalScope
object Globals extends js.Object {
var callbackFunctionFor3rdPartyLib: js.Function0[Unit] = js.native
}
then I set this var like this:
Globals.callbackFunctionFor3rdPartyLib = () => {
// do things
}
and then I add the script into the DOM.
This was working with scala.js 0.6.x, but with 1.0 I'm getting an exception like the following:
scala.scalajs.js.JavaScriptException: ReferenceError: callbackFunctionFor3rdPartyLib is not defined
In the changelog for 1.0.0 there's a "Breaking changes" section that mentions this:
Accessing a member that is not declared causes a ReferenceError to be thrown
...
js.Dynamic.global.globalVarThatDoesNotExist = 42
would previously create said global variable. In Scala.js 1.x, it also throws a ReferenceError.
My question is:
what is the right way to do something like this (create a new global var) in scala.js 1.0?
If you know you'll always be in a browser context, you can use #JSGlobal("window") instead of #JSGlobalScope on your Globals, which will then be equivalent to doing window.myGlobalVarFor3rdPartyLib in JS. So that will work.
#js.native
#JSGlobal("window")
object Globals extends js.Object {
var callbackFunctionFor3rdPartyLib: js.Function0[Unit] = js.native
}
If not, but you are using a script (so not a CommonJS nor an ES module), the best thing is actually to use
object Globals {
#JSExportTopLevel("myGlobalVarFor3rdPartyLib")
var foo: js.Function[Unit] = ...
}
Note that Globals is a normal Scala object now, not a JS one.
The #JSExportTopLevel creates a top-level var myGlobalVarFor3rdPartyLib at the top of the script, and then assigning Globals.foo will also assign that top-level var.
If you're not using a script nor know that you're going to always be in a browser, then you need to figure out the global object yourself. Scala.js 0.6.x tried to do that for you, but could fail, so we don't do that anymore. You can at least follow the "instructions" on the documentation of js.special.fileLevelThis to reproduce what Scala.js 0.6.x was doing. I repeat the instructions here:
Using this value should be rare, and mostly limited to writing code
detecting what the global object is. For example, a typical detection
code--in case we do not need to worry of ES modules--looks like:
val globalObject = {
import js.Dynamic.{global => g}
if (js.typeOf(g.global) != "undefined" && (g.global.Object eq g.Object)) {
// Node.js environment detected
g.global
} else {
// In all other well-known environment, we can use the global `this`
js.special.fileLevelThis
}
}
Note that the above code is not comprehensive, as there can be JavaScript
environments where the global object cannot be fetched neither through
global nor this. If your code needs to run in such an environment, it
is up to you to use an appropriate detection procedure.

Python C API - How to inherit from your own python class?

The newtypes tutorial shows you how to inherit from a base python class. Can you inherit from your own python class? Something like this?
PyObject *mod = PyImport_AddModule("foomod");
PyObject *o = PyObject_GetAttrString(mod, "BaseClass");
PyTypeObject *t = o->ob_type;
FooType.tp_base = t;
if (PyType_Ready(&FooType ) < 0) return NULL;
though you need to define your struct with the base class as the first member per the documentation so it sounds like this is not possible? ie how would I setup the Foo struct?
typedef struct {
PyListObject list;
int state;
} SubListObject;
What I'm really trying to do is subclass _UnixSelectorEventLoop and it seems like my only solution is to define a python class that derives from my C class and from _UnixSelectorEventLoop with my C class listed first so that it can override methods in the other base class.
I think you're basically right on your assessment:
it seems like my only solution is to define a python class that derives from my C class and from _UnixSelectorEventLoop with my C class listed first so that it can override methods in the other base class.
You can't define a class that inherits from a Python class because it'd need to start with a C struct of basically arbitrary size.
There's a couple of other options that you might like to consider:
You could create a class the manual way by calling PyType_Type. See this useful answer on a question about multiple inheritance which is another sort of inheritance that the C API struggles with. This probably limits you too much, since you can't have C attributes, but you can have C functions.
You could do "inheritance by composition" - i.e. have you _UnixSelectorEventLoop as part of the object, then forward __getattr__ and __setattr__ to it in the event of unknown attributes. It's probably easier to see what I mean with Python code (which is simply but tediously transformed into C API code)
class YourClass:
def __init__(self,...):
self.state = 0
self._usel = _UnixSelectorEventLoop()
def __getattr__(self, name):
return getattr(self._usel, 'name')
def __setattr__(self, name, value):
if name in self.__dict__:
object.__setattr__(self, name, value)
else:
setattr(self._usel, name, value)
# maybe __hasattr__ and __delattr__ too?
I'm hoping to avoid having to write this C API code myself, but the slots are tp_getattro and tp_setattro. Note that __getattr__ will need to be more comprehensive in the C version, since it acts closer to the __getattribute__ in Python. The flipside is that isinstance and issubclass will fail, which may or may not be an issue for you.

Better way to do class type alias?

From time to time, I would like to call a class differently depending on the context or to reduce duplication.
Let's assume, I have the following classes defined:
// in file a.dart
class A {
final String someprop;
A(this.someprop)
}
// in file b.dart
abstract class BInterface {
String get someprop;
}
class B = A with EmptyMixin implements BInterface;
For this syntax to check out, I have to define EmptyMixin so that the syntax is OK.
Do you know of a better/prettier way to do this "aliasing" in Dart?
I'm afraid the way you're doing it is the prettiest way to do this at the moment. There is a very old, but still open and active issue: https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/issues/2626 that proposes the typedef B = A; syntax for aliasing types.

AngelScript - Avoid implicit default constructor from running

I'm currently testing some simple AngelScript stuff, and noticed something I find a bit strange when it comes to how objects are initialized from classes.
Let's say I define a class like this:
class MyClass {
int i;
MyClass(int i) {
this.i = i;
}
}
I can create an object of this class by doing this:
MyClass obj = MyClass(5);
However it seems I can also create an object by doing this:
MyClass obj;
The problem here is that obj.i becomes a default value as it is undefined.
Additionally, adding a default constructor to my class and a print function call in each one reveals that when I do MyClass obj = MyClass(5); BOTH constructors are called, not just the one with the matching parameter. This seems risky to me, as it could initialize a lot of properties unnecessarily for this "ghost" instance.
I can avoid this double-initialization by using a handle, but this seems more like a work-around rather than a solution:
MyClass# obj = MyClass(5);
So my question sums up to:
Can I require a specific constructor to be called?
Can I prevent a default constructor from running?
What's the proper way to deal with required parameters when creating objects?
Mind that this is purely in the AngelScript script language, completely separate from the C++ code of the host application. The host is from 2010 and is not open-source, and my knowledge of their implementation is very limited, so if the issue lies there, I can't change it.
In order to declare class and send the value you choose to constructor try:
MyClass obj(5);
To prevent using default constructor create it and use:
.
MyClass()
{
abort("Trying to create uninitialized object of type that require init parameters");
}
or
{
exit(1);
}
or
{
assert(1>2,"Trying to create uninitialized object of type that require init parameters");
}
or
{
engine.Exit();
}
in case that any of those is working in you environment.
declaring the constructor as private seems not to work in AS, unlike other languages.

roxygen2 docstrings for Reference Classes overriding base class

I have an abstract base class that looks like this:
#' An Abstract Base Class
Filter <- setRefClass(
Class = "Filter",
methods = list(
train = function(x) {
"Override this method to train any associated parameters for the filter on the supplied data"
print("no learning to be done")
})
)
and the following class that extends this class:
#' Filter class that leverages the prcomp R method.
PcaFilter <- setRefClass(
"PcaFilter",
contains="Filter",
fields=list(
d="numeric",
model="ANY"
),
methods=list(
train=function(x) {
"train PCA model, store result to model attribute of obj"
model <<- prcomp(x)
})
)
After I run
roxygen2::roxygenize()
Then I get two man files but in the man file for the second class the docstring for the overridden class does not come through- I get the docstring for the base class. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug with roxygen2 ?
Also is there any better way of doing this? I would like to be able to use multi-line docstrings.
Having searched through the Issues on the roxygen github repo. Found that there's already an active Issue pertaining to this:
https://github.com/klutometis/roxygen/issues/433
In summary: the support and documentation for Reference Classes in roxygen is not great as of v5.0. The suggested method is still to use docstrings and it's impossible to override the docstrings of parents.