Re: object newbie

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Chip Sample (sample@idcomm.com) writes:
 
> I must admit that based on comments from this list, I have experimented with
> the object features of IDL for the past week or so, and have implemented
> them in a few places in a fairly big widget code I have written.
> 
> My initial observations are that there seems to be less of a temptation to
> use common blocks when objects are used.  On the other hand my first
> impression was that an object is a structure whose fields can not be
> accessed until you write additional "methods" to get at each and every damn
> one of them.  So my object was littered with about 25 "methods" just so I
> could pry the data out of the object.

Well, we typically write a GetProperty method and a SetProperty
method to get at things, but this will work too. :-)
 
> I eventually came on a work around to write a "proto_object" with a method
> allowing you to pass a string containing a tag name which returns the
> contents of the field with that tag name.  This "proto_object" is inherited
> by all other objects I create just so I can use this method.  Along the way
> I found that the TAG_NAMES function in IDL doesn't work for objects so I had
> to create one.  It basically copies the object structure into a regular
> structure so the TAG_NAMES can be used.
> 
> Am I making this too hard?

No. You are becoming a righteous IDL programmer! :-)

Cheers,

David

P.S. There is still time to get your public service
requirement out of the way before the final IDL EPA
Membership Committee meeting in September. It wouldn't
take much more work than publishing this method. :-)

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
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