[Richard Suchenwirth] 2000-11-30 - ''Everything is a thing.'' This tautology rhymes with our old Tcl mantra, but isn't always true. Here I show an  OO API in the Tcl spirit of utmost simplicity, inspired by [Self] (see below). For implementation see [Doing things in namespaces] - [Doing things]. Itcl's famous toaster example is thingified in [Toasters and things].

Let the command ''thing'' create '''things''' (which are something like objects, or classes, or frames...) by giving them a name and possibly other information (which gives you multiple one-level inheritance):
 thing human legs 2
 thing Socrates is-a {human philosopher}
Note that ''philosopher'' is a not-yet defined name here, it's just a string, and strings are implicitly also things. Thus, if ''everything is a string'' and ''a string is a thing'', then ''everything is a thing.'' QED. (But seriously, strings can for instance not necessarily be used as command names, so let's better distinguish ''little things'' like strings and ''real things'', of which this page deals).
A ''little thing'' can always be raised to a ''real thing'' - by calling it "thing". So much for forward references...

Things have '''properties''' (variables, facets, ...) that can be set and got in the familiar way:
 human set mortal 1 ;# Humans are mortal
 Socrates set hair white
 Socrates set hair ;# returns ==>: white
According to the is-a list (a property things always have, and be it the empty list),  properties are searched in "superthings" if not found in the thing itself:
 Socrates set mortal ;# ==> 1
Properties can be introspected (more orthogonally than ''set/info vars''):
 Socrates set ;# ==> is-a mortal legs
Things can have '''ways''' (methods, demons, ...) that can be set and got in an even more orthogonal way (pure Lambda) than ''proc/info args/info body'' provide, and inherited like properties:
 human wayto sing {{text} {puts "$text, lala."}}
 Socrates wayto sing ;# ==> {{text} {puts "$text, lala."}}
 thing Plato
 Plato wayto sing [Socrates wayto sing] ;# knows how to sing, but isn't human
 Socrates wayto ;# ==> sing
and called like objects like to be called:
 Socrates sing "Lali" ;# ==> Lali, lala.
Special ways could be specified that get fired when a property is changed (write traces):
 Socrates way-if-set legs {{} {
         puts "Hey, I now have [self get legs] legs!"
 }
And good old introspection is always there:
 Socrates help ;#(error) help? use one of: set, unset, is-a, sing, ...
 thing -names ;#==> human Socrates Plato
That's what I have so far. Thoughts?

----

[Andreas Kupries] Not so much as thoughts, but a couple of associations. IOW, the above reminds me of

   * "prototype"-based OO systems [http://www.mri.mq.edu.au/~kjx/prototypes.html], for example "[SELF]" [http://www.objs.com/x3h7/self.htm] [http://www.sun.com/research/self/index.html]

   * Artificial intelligence ([Artificial Intelligence with Tcl]) and semantic nets, also case based reasoning. I once read the following book  which had a chapter about this [http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/019507906X/qid=974896542/sr=1-3/028-0747242-0695707] (Actually it was a german translation).

''RS:'' Yes, I didn't credit it, but a few lines from Larry Smith about Self brought me to make up the above. Thanks for the links - just my printer is momentarily stuck...

[MSW]: It reminds me of [MIT OTcl] (which btw is the soundest OO system for Tcl I've ever seen :)

[RHS] ''08April2005'' There are some thoughts here similar to [What If: Everything is a Thing]

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