edu.vub.at.objects
Interface Object

All Known Subinterfaces:

AbstractGrammar, ActorMirror, Application, AssignField, Assignment, AssignmentSymbol, AssignTable, AssignVariable, AsyncMessage, AsyncMessageCreation, Begin, Boolean, Closure, ClosureLiteral, Context, DefExternalField, DefExternalMethod, DefField, Definition, DefMethod, DefTable, DefType, Exception, Expression, FarReference, Field, FieldSelection, FieldSelectionCreation, Fraction, Handler, Import, JavaClosure, Letter, Lookup, Message, MessageCreation, MessageSend, Method, MethodInvocation, MethodInvocationCreation, MirrorRoot, MultiAssignment, MultiDefinition, Nil, Number, Numeric, Quote, Selection, Splice, Statement, Symbol, Table, Tabulation, Text, TypeTag, Unquote, UnquoteSplice

 Object

ATObject represents the public interface common to any AmbientTalk/2 object. Any value representing an ambienttalk object should implement this interface. More specifically, this interface actually defines two interfaces all at once:

• A base-level interface to AmbientTalk objects, describing all methods and fields that a regular AmbientTalk object understands.
• A meta-level interface to AmbientTalk objects, describing all methods and fields that the mirror on any AmbientTalk object understands.

In the AmbientTalk/2 Interpreter implementation, there are only a few classes that (almost) fully implement this interface. The principal implementors are:

• NativeATObject: provides a default implementation for all native data types. For example, native methods, closures, abstract grammar nodes, booleans, numbers, etc. are all represented as AmbientTalk objects with 'native' behaviour.
• Callframe: overrides most of the default behaviour of NativeATObject to implement the behaviour of call frames, also known as activation records. In AmbientTalk, call frames are the objects that together define the runtime stack. They are objects with support for fields but without support for actual methods.
• Object: extends the behaviour of call frames to include support for full-fledged, programmer-defined objects with support for methods and delegation.
• JavaClass and JavaObject: adapt the behaviour of native AmbientTalk objects to engage in symbiosis with either a Java class or a Java object. This implementation makes use of the Java Reflection API to regard Java objects as though it were AmbientTalk objects.
• Mirage and MirrorRoot: these two classes work in tandem to enable reflection on AmbientTalk objects. That is, because of these two classes, an AmbientTalk programmer can himself invoke the methods provided in this interface. Mirage implements each operation in this interface by forwarding a downed invocation to a custom so-called mirror object. This mirror object can delegate to MirrorRoot, which is a special object that implements each meta-level operation of this interface as a base-level operation. Hence, in a sense, MirrorRoot also 'implements' this interface, but at the AmbientTalk level, rather than at the Java level.

Author:

tvcutsem

Method Summary

Object

super() Bound to the dynamic parent of this object.

Method Detail

super

Object super()

Bound to the dynamic parent of this object. The dynamic parent of an object is the object to which failed selection or invocation requests or type tests are delegated to.

Returns:

the current dynamic parent of this object.