In Scala, is there any mechanism for inheriting local method variables? - scala

For example suppose I have
class Parent {
def method() {
var myvar = "test"
}
}
Is there any mechanism for accessing myvar in child classes?
Edit:
I'm trying to build a DSL modeled upon an existing language. That language has features such as
onTrade {
if (price == ...) // will compile
}
onDayStart {
if (price == ...) // will not compile
}
It is as if price is a global variable but there are compile time checks to make sure it is only used in the correct context. I was thinking one way to simulate this would be to have local variables that could be overridden in subclasses. Something like
// Parent
onTrade {
var price = ...
}
// Child
onTrade {
if (price == ...)
if (somethingelse == ...) // will not compile
}

Not really. That's scope for you. If you want it to be visible at different levels, you should probably change the scope of the variable itself.
For example, if you want to define it at the class level, you can share it that way. Local variables wouldn't be local if they weren't actually, well, local.
Scopes are nested, from the most broad, to the most local. Chapter 2, pg. 16 of the Scala Language Reference covers "Identifiers, Names, and Scopes" which explains this in more technical detail.

Possible solution for your problem (though I don't see a way to get rid of new):
// parent
var onTrades = List[OnTrade]()
class OnTrade {
var price = ...
...
onTrades = this :: onTrades
}
// child
new OnTrade {
if (price == ...) {...} // subclass constructor, will call OnTrade constructor first
}

Related

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.

Coffeescript "#" variables

What does it mean in Coffeescript when a variable name begins with an "#" sign?
For example, I've been looking through the hubot source code and just in the first few lines I've looked at, I found
class Brain extends EventEmitter
# Represents somewhat persistent storage for the robot. Extend this.
#
# Returns a new Brain with no external storage.
constructor: (robot) ->
#data =
users: { }
_private: { }
#autoSave = true
robot.on "running", =>
#resetSaveInterval 5
I've seen it several other places, but I haven't been able to guess what it means.
The # symbol is a shorcut for this as you can see in Operators and Aliases.
As a shortcut for this.property, you can use #property.
It basically means that the “#” variables are instance variables of the class, that is, class members. Which souldn't be confused with class variables, that you can compare to static members.
Also, you can think of #variables as the this or self operators of OOP languages, but it's not the exact same thing as the old javascript this. That javascript this refer to the current scope, which causes some problems when your are trying to refer to the class scope inside a callback for example, that's why coffescript have introduced the #variables, to solve this kind of problem.
For example, consider the following code:
Brain.prototype = new EventEmitter();
function Brain(robot){
// Represents somewhat persistent storage for the robot. Extend this.
//
// Returns a new Brain with no external storage.
this.data = {
users: { },
_private: { }
};
this.autoSave = true;
var self = this;
robot.on('running', fucntion myCallback() {
// here is the problem, if you try to call `this` here
// it will refer to the `myCallback` instead of the parent
// this.resetSaveInterval(5);
// therefore you have to use the cached `self` way
// which coffeescript solved using #variables
self.resetSaveInterval(5);
});
}
Final thought, the # these days means that you are referring to the class instance (i.e., this or self). So, #data basically means this.data, so, without the #, it would refer to any visible variable data on scope.

Define a static variable in a function like c++

In my function, can I have a variable that
Retains its value between function calls.
Is only visible inside that function
Is unique for each thread i.e. if I'm calling the function from two threads then there are two variables that are static with regard to each thread.
Why I want that:
I have a function in which I fill in a list and return that list. The problem is that if I declare a variable normally, then I will have to allocate memory for it every time I call the function. I want to avoid that and allocate only once then every time I call the function it would fill in that variable with the proper values then return it.
I can do the following inside a class:
class MyClass {
val __readLineTemp = mutable.IndexedSeq.fill[Int](5)(-1)
def readLine() = {
var i = 0
while (i < __readLineTemp.length)
{
__readLineTemp(i) = Random.nextInt()
i += 1
}
__readLineTemp
}
}
My problems with this approach is that it doesn't satisfy the points 2 and 3 namely visibility only inside the method and being unique for each thread. However, for point 3 I can simply make each thread initialise its own object of MyClass.
I understand there is probably no way of achieving exactly what I want, but sometimes people come up with clever ideas to overcome this, specially that Scala seems quite deep and there is a lot of tricks you can do
You can use a closure to satisfy 1 and 2:
def foo = {
var a = 5
() => {
a = a + 1
a
}
}
i.e. create a closure that will contain the static variable (in your case, this is __readLineTemp) and return a function that's the only thing with access to the variable.
Then use it like this to satisfy the thread requirement:
val t1 = new Thread(new Runnable {
def run = {
val f = new DynamicVariable(foo)
println(f.value())
println(f.value())
}
})

Class, Interface, Prototype, and else

I'm creating a JavaScript Framework for making applications in the classic Object-Oriented Programming (so with classes/interfaces instead of only prototypes). However I still have a problem with giving names to those.
For instance :
var Bidule = function() { /*...*/ } ;
Bidule.prototype = { /*...*/ } ;
Is Bidule a OOP Class as a class is a constructor ? Or is it only a constructor ?
As classes don't have prototypes, I don't think it could be called a true class.
So it means I should call them both 'Constructors'. However, what about an interface or an abstract class ? What is the correct word if they aren't constructors ? And is an interface a kind of class ?
I've designed constructor functions, classes and interfaces in my Framework. However I need a name to regroup all of theme so we may build one of those like this :
var Bidule = new _NAME_.Class(/*...*/) ; // Where _NAME_ is the name of the container of class/function/interface.
I was thinking of "Concept" but I'm not sure and would like to know your opinions.
I also named "visibility" the common word for describing public/private class,
"type" for static/abstract/interface/singleton/final class. Are those correct ?
And one last question : Is there a difference between the verb 'extend' and 'inherit' ?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Javascript is not a traditional OO language, it is prototyped. Some concepts about OO cannot be applied to js for this reason.
Bidule is your type, so it is your "class". The constructor is the function you assined to the variable.
var Bidule = function() { /*...*/ } ;
Bidule.prototype = { /*...*/ } ;
var obj = new Bidule();
obj.foo = 'bar';
var obj2 = new Bidule();
obj2.foo = 'foo';
alert(obj instanceof Bidule); // true
alert(obj2 instanceof Bidule); // true
alert(obj.foo); // bar
alert(obj2.foo); // foo
Javascript does not support abstract classes or interfaces and no, interfaces are not some kind of classes. Interfaces defines contracts, or what your class does, but do not specify how.
Extend and inherit have the same meaning in this context.

Implementing TypeScript interface with bare function signature plus other fields

How do I write a class that implements this TypeScript interface (and keeps the TypeScript compiler happy):
interface MyInterface {
(): string;
text2(content: string);
}
I saw this related answer:
How to make a class implement a call signature in Typescript?
But that only works if the interface only has the bare function signature. It doesn't work if you have additional members (such as function text2) to be implemented.
A class cannot implement everything that is available in a typescript interface. Two prime examples are callable signatures and index operations e.g. : Implement an indexible interface
The reason is that an interface is primarily designed to describe anything that JavaScript objects can do. Therefore it needs to be really robust. A TypeScript class however is designed to represent specifically the prototype inheritance in a more OO conventional / easy to understand / easy to type way.
You can still create an object that follows that interface:
interface MyInterface {
(): string;
text2(content: string);
}
var MyType = ((): MyInterface=>{
var x:any = function():string { // Notice the any
return "Some string"; // Dummy implementation
}
x.text2 = function(content:string){
console.log(content); // Dummy implementation
}
return x;
}
);
There's an easy and type-safe way to do this with ES6's Object.assign:
const foo: MyInterface = Object.assign(
// Callable signature implementation
() => 'hi',
{
// Additional properties
text2(content) { /* ... */ }
}
)
Intersection types, which I don't think were available in TypeScript when this question was originally asked and answered, are the secret sauce to getting the typing right.
Here's an elaboration on the accepted answer.
As far as I know, the only way to implement a call-signature is to use a function/method. To implement the remaining members, just define them on this function. This might seem strange to developers coming from C# or Java, but I think it's normal in JavaScript.
In JavaScript, this would be simple because you can just define the function and then add the members. However, TypeScript's type system doesn't allow this because, in this example, Function doesn't define a text2 member.
So to achieve the result you want, you need to bypass the type system while you define the members on the function, and then you can cast the result to the interface type:
//A closure is used here to encapsulate the temporary untyped variable, "result".
var implementation = (() => {
//"any" type specified to bypass type system for next statement.
//Defines the implementation of the call signature.
var result: any = () => "Hello";
//Defines the implementation of the other member.
result.text2 = (content: string) => { };
//Converts the temporary variable to the interface type.
return <MyInterface>result;
})(); //Invokes the closure to produce the implementation
Note that you don't need to use a closure. You could just declare your temporary variable in the same scope as the resulting interface implementation. Another option is to name the closure function to improve readability.
Here's what I think is a more realistic example:
interface TextRetriever {
(): string;
Replace(text: string);
}
function makeInMemoryTextRetriever(initialText: string) {
var currentText = initialText;
var instance: any = () => currentText;
instance.Replace = (newText: string) => currentText = newText;
return <TextRetriever>instance;
}
var inMemoryTextRetriever = makeInMemoryTextRetriever("Hello");