great! looking at STON next! thanks!
On Thu, May 22, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Clément Bera <bera.clem...@gmail.com>wrote: > Hello, > > I think you should look at the STON framework. STON looks like JSON for > smalltalk objects. Basically it does the same as your idea but instead of a > dictionary it loads fields of an objects from a STON file which looks like > a JSON file (a STON is kind of an extended Dictionary exported as a string, > but it has support for more that instance variables). > > Now if you want to go your way, to me what you want to do looks fine. > These methods can be used for development tools but also for frameworks and > stuff like that. The thing to do it is to add this method in Object and add > support so it can work on all objects in the system. > > Object>>#intializeWithDictionary: aDictionary > self class isVariable ifTrue: ["specific case ?"] > self class isBytes ifTrue: ["specific case ?"] > self class isCompiledMethod ifTrue: ["specific case ?"] > self class isSmallInteger ifTrue: ["specific case"] > aDictionary keysAndValuesDo: [ :key :value | > self instVarNamed: key put: value ifAbsent: [ self error: 'no ', > key , ' found']. > > But as you can see there are many specific cases: CompiledMethod, bytes > objects, word objects, immediate objects, variable-sized objects, weak > objects and for Pharo 4 even others that you may need to handle in your > code (Ephemerons, 2bytes and 4 bytes objects). > > If you don't get the specific cases (you may not know programming language > internals), then imagine how you would make your code work to initialize an > Array, a ByteArray or a CompiledMethod from a dictionary. Not easy, huh ? > > That's why I strongly recommend to use something like STON, because it is > very easy to use, handle already all the specific cases, well documented > (Sven always does fancy documentation) and it will be maintained in Pharo 4 > for recent changes (because Sven likes to use the bleeding edge version of > Pharo). > > Regards, > > Clement > > > 2014-05-22 19:37 GMT+02:00 sergio_101 <sergio....@gmail.com>: > > >> is it possible to initialize a class with a dictionary? my first thought >> would be to create a method like: >> >> intializeWithDictionary: aDictionary >> >> then, loop through the elements and do something like: >> >> instVarNamed: key put: value >> >> but the book says: >> >> Caveat: Although these methods are useful for building development tools, >> using them to develop conventional applications is a bad idea: these >> reflective methods break the encapsulation boundary of your objects and can >> there- fore make your code much harder to understand and maintain.-- >> >> should i avoid this? >> >> >> ---- >> peace, >> sergio >> photographer, journalist, visionary >> #BitMessage BM-2D8VWUJSS41RFKh1ec83preVabHrnniExa >> >> http://www.Village-Buzz.com >> http://www.ThoseOptimizeGuys.com >> http://www.CodingForHire.com >> http://www.coffee-black.com >> http://www.painlessfrugality.com >> http://www.twitter.com/sergio_101 >> http://www.facebook.com/sergio101 >> > > -- ---- peace, sergio photographer, journalist, visionary #BitMessage BM-2D8VWUJSS41RFKh1ec83preVabHrnniExa http://www.Village-Buzz.com http://www.ThoseOptimizeGuys.com http://www.CodingForHire.com http://www.coffee-black.com http://www.painlessfrugality.com http://www.twitter.com/sergio_101 http://www.facebook.com/sergio101
