Library standardization

[Sean Kelly]

== Quote from Robert Fraser (fraserofthenight at gmail.com)'s article
> Sean Kelly wrote:
> > == Quote from Robert Fraser (fraserofthenight at gmail.com)'s article
> >> Sean Kelly wrote:
> >>> The package attribute seems to cover every instance
> >>> where I'd want to expose some special functionality outside a module.
> >> But it doesn't work. A package function isn't added to the vtable, so
> >> you can't expose a function that says "this function should be used only
> >> within this package AND is designed to be overriden (by other classes in
> >> the package)".
> >
> > Um, what?  Who would ever want to do such a thing?  And why do you
> > think it should work?  Static class member functions aren't virtual
> > either.
> >
> >
> > Sean
> Me. I wanted to create a reflection package for flute, where a number of
> cooperating classes provide reflection information. One class is used to
> provide stack traces, which are done in a system-specific manner (that
> is, differently on Windows and Unix) and so the Windows class an the
> Unix class both extend a single abstract base class. Only one of the
> methods in this stack trace provider class should be accessible outside
> the package -- getStackTrace() ("get a stack trace for this executing
> address"). However, a different method, getLineInfo() ("scan the debug
> info for the file/line of this executing address") is used by a
> different function in the package (but not within that module).
> In summary:
> - There's a set of cooperating modules in a package
> - Some of the functionality in a class needs to be exposed only within
> that package
> - That functionality is not "static", it relies on member variables
> - That functionality relies on virtual dispatch
> My solution? Put everything in one huge module and make the functions
> that were going to be package-protected module-private.

Oh, I see what you mean.  I suppose one could argue that package methods are
effectively static, but it still seems a bit weird to me.  Can they access instance
variables?


Sean