[Newbies] Adding instance variables during runtime

[Warakorn Paphrawat]

In my current little project I would like write classes in Smalltalk. However, when I am designing the classes I do not know, which instance variables the class should have.

While I am running the application, the user (or another agent) determines which instance variables should be assigned to a class.
How can I add instance variables and possibly class variables to a class, while the program is running ? Actually how can the Smalltalk code be automatically transformed (and "accepted") from the 'BEFORE' state to the 'AFTER' state.

// BEFORE //
Object subclass: #Class1
    instanceVariableNames: ''
    classVariableNames: ''
    poolDictionaries: ''
    category: 'some-category'

// AFTER //
Object subclass: #Class1
     instanceVariableNames: 'InstVar1 InstVar2 '
     classVariableNames: 'ClassVar1 ClassVar2'
     poolDictionaries: ''
     category: 'some-category'

I worked with the ClassBuilder class, but I haven't achieved this kind of automated code transformation.
Let's assume the desired variable names are available as normal strings and should be added one after another (method like: addNewInstanceVariable: aString ).

Don't worry about getter/setter methods for the new instance variables, that's another issue.


Thanks in advance
Warakorn

 
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