Re: Ada OO Mechanism

[Ole-Hjalmar Kristensen <ohk@clustra.com>]

Hyman Rosen <hymie@prolifics.com> writes:

> Samuel Mize <smize@imagin.net> writes:
> > THE QUESTION: how does one do "mix-in" classes in C++?  I'd bet a
> > nickel that you can, but I don't know the specific mechanism.  The
> > "mix-in" metaphor is described in the Ada 95 Rationale, 4.6.2.
> 
> I believe this Ada --
> 
>    generic
>       type S is abstract tagged private;
>    package P is
>       type T is abstract new S with private;
>       -- operations on T
>    private
>       type T is abstract new S with
>          record
>             -- additional components
>          end record;
>    end P;
> 
> corrsponds to this C++ --
> 
>    template <typename S>
>    class P
>    {
>    public:
>       class T : public S
>       {
>       private:
>          // additional components
>       }
>    };
> 
> and given some type A, one could declare objects of type P<A>::T.
> These objects are derived from A and also implement the extra
> operations of T. I haven't bothered to duplicate the 'abstract',
> but that's easily done by giving T an abstract destructor, ~T() = 0.
> 

In C++, you don't even need templates to do mix-in's. The following
method will work:

class a {
public:
        virtual void f() = 0;
};

class b: virtual public a {
public:
        void g(){ 
           ....
           f();
           ....
        }
};

class a_impl_1: virtual public a {
public:
        void f(){
                do_something();
        }
};

class a_impl_2: virtual public a {
public:
        void f(){
                do_something_else();
        }
};

class mixed1: public b, public a_impl_1{
};

class mixed2: public b, public a_impl_2{
};

Now, in mixed1, g will call a_impl_1::g(), and in mixed2, g will call
a_impl_2::g().
Any function which is virtual in class a is accessible to any derived
class, but the actual function which is called is determined at run
time. The classes which are derived from a has to declare a as a
virtual base class, or we would get multiple a's in mixed1 and mixed2,
and the mechanism would not work.


<stuff deleted>


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