On 04/16/2012 08:42 PM, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
On 2012-04-16 18:53, Walter Bright wrote:
On 4/16/2012 9:40 AM, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
Regardless of how the runtime reflection is generated, by a library or
the
compiler, it needs to be available to all types.
Why?
(I can see the point for a dynamic language, but not a static one.)
The standard example that comes back is serialization. That can be done
without support for runtime reflection but not as good as with the
support. As far as I know it's impossible to serialize through a base
class reference without registering the subtype with the serializer, if
runtime reflection isn't available.
This could be fixed by introducing a simple language feature that allows
a supertype to specify mixin templates that are 'inherited' by all subtypes.
Eg:
interface ISerializable {
ubyte[] serialize();
super mixin Serialize;
}
class A: ISerializable {
int x;
int y;
}
class B: A{
A foo;
@nonserialized B cache;
}
Would be lowered to:
interface ISerializable {
ubyte[] serialize();
mixin Serialize;
}
class A: ISerializable {
int x;
int y;
mixin Serialize;
}
class B: A{
A foo;
@nonserialized B cache;
mixin Serialize;
}
This way, all subclasses automatically register themselves.
I think this would be very useful in general. I often do this manually.
