Hi, Cosmin RTTI is a high-performance feature, but it is implied in object reflection in the context of polymorphism, where the type of a method argument message is determined at runtime by the type of the message sent to a given instance of a class, i.e., object. In sufficiently-complete implementations of object-oriented programming language model, an object (class instance) should be able to introspect and determine the current type of its polymorphic methods. Such languages implement run-time polymorphism, which is part of the object-orient language specification, which has yet to be nailed down in its entirety, but which some languages, which shall remain nameless, are credited with having implemented (I know: yeah, right, wishful thinking).
An aside: Sufficiently-complete does not imply complete. Sufficiently-complete is relative to a set of specifications. It is a restriction to a subset of all possible and simultaneously-satisfiable conditions expressed as second-order predicates with free variable (not in the scope of any quantifiers). Thanks for all your help. When I drill further down to this I would appreciate your input. It has proved of very useful. Paule >----- ------- Original Message ------- ----- >From: "Cosmin Prund" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "'Borland's Delphi Discussion List'" ><[email protected]> >Sent: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:09:38 > >> So, I wonder is there a way to "transliterate" >the C NAMELIST emulator >> (many >> thanks for the search Cosmin) into pure Delphi? I >appreciate the >> underlying >> difficulties and the possible requirement for >pushing the envelope of >> Delphi >> language constraints, however a scientific >computing oriented Delphi would >> really do well to have a built-in or at least >mostly-native NAMELIST >> facility. > >It can be "transliterated" but it can't be done >automatically, if that's >what you're thinking of. If you're willing to do it >yourself, be aware it's >using lots of pointers (uses linked lists) and it >will, most likely, not >result in the best possible Delphi code. Since this >code can not replace the >missing compiler support in Delphi you'll end up >using pseudo-RTTI the way I >suggested anyway, only you'll not have the benefit >of Delphi's classes for >coding. > >> However, the Fortran implementation of NAMELISTs >ought to be repeatable in >> other languages that are sufficiently-complete. >Can we find a way? It >> would >> really be worth it. > >You imply a language is complete if it has support >for NAMELISTs. I remember >a joke I found on Wikipedia's page on Fortran: > >"What will the language of the year 2000 look like? >... Nobody knows but it >will be called FORTRAN." > >_______________________________________________ >Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] >http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi
