[squeak-dev] ANN: NanoTraits v0.5

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Mon Dec 21 22:19:49 UTC 2009


Folks -

My experiments with a simpler traits implementation are starting to bear 
results. Attached a version of NanoTraits which is the smallest 
implementation of traits that I could come up with. Making it loadable 
inside a current trunk image has been a bit of a challenge since it 
needs to operate side-by-side with the existing traits during load 
(apologies for the various isKindOf:'s), but it seems to work fairly 
well now (fingers crossed). There are few differences to the Berne trait 
implementation including:

- TraitDescription is a subclass of ClassDescription. This is the main 
simplification since it avoids creating a dual trait/class hierarchy. It 
comes at the "cost" of having potentially support for instance variables 
in traits (i.e., stateful traits) but since this isn't exposed there is 
very little actual overhead.

- NanoClassTrait is the class of NanoTrait (i.e., the same meta 
structure that classes have). Since this models exactly the structure 
that classes have, it makes browser integration significantly simpler 
(NanoTraits would work fine in 3.8 for example without changing browsers 
etc) and allows us to remove the (now unecessary) additional tool support.

- Methods used from other traits retain a "method home" reference so 
that for any method in a class you can tell whether it was defined 
locally or in some other trait. This makes several things *a lot* easier 
and will allow us to get rid of all the localSelectors stuff in 
ClassDescription in the next pass (Igor - this gives you the information 
where a method is from without poking in other places; just ask i.e., 
(ClassDescription>>#addSelectorSilently:withMethod:) methodHome ==>  
TAccessingMethodDictDescription)

- Some previously invalid trait composition are now valid, in particular 
T - {#x} - {#y} (meaning T- {#x. #y}) as well as T @ {#x->#y} @ (#a -> 
#b} (meaning T @ { #x -> #y. #a -> #b}.

- You can't mix Berne and Nano traits. If you try it, things will blow 
up (incompatible internals).

- You can't mix Berne and Nano traits tests. I don't know why but if you 
run them at the same time things go wrong.

To install NanoTraits:
* Load NanoTraits-Kernel.st
* Load NanoTraits-Tests.st
* Load NanoTraits-Extensions.cs
* Run the NanoTraits-Tests
* (assuming all tests are green) execute: NanoTraits install.

This will make NanoTraits the default traits implementation and convert 
any existing traits. I've successfully played with Nile (the only other 
traits stuff I was aware about besides the class kernel which is a bit 
difficult to experiment with) but from what I can tell everything should 
work just fine.

The one extra thing I'm seriously considering after our recent 
discussions is to change NanoTraits to actually use mixins to implement 
traits composition. What this would mean is that instead of adding trait 
methods to a class directly, they would be added to a (hidden) 
superclass. Composition rules would be unaffected by this change but it 
would solve the issue of trait methods messing up the methods *actually* 
defined in a class, showing a seven times when looking for implementors 
and more.

Consider this my holiday gift to the community :-)

Cheers,
  - Andreas

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