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authorMatthias Benkard <code@mail.matthias.benkard.de>2008-03-21 19:44:09 +0100
committerMatthias Benkard <code@mail.matthias.benkard.de>2008-03-21 19:44:09 +0100
commitd66cb037db9c42d42528bfcf6fdf18ecbb94499f (patch)
treea32988043db7e0d660b2b5f12dc3546c6b2590c5 /Lisp
parent8d18782f12e2316ce4f66a7a25ebe8f70eb97522 (diff)
Explain the rationale for passing a static class name as the first argument to every OBJECTIVE-C-GENERIC-FUNCTION.
darcs-hash:e1afc0fc7530051417435a68b13a4cab52e4a893
Diffstat (limited to 'Lisp')
-rw-r--r--Lisp/method-definition.lisp31
1 files changed, 31 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Lisp/method-definition.lisp b/Lisp/method-definition.lisp
index caedec9..a000c49 100644
--- a/Lisp/method-definition.lisp
+++ b/Lisp/method-definition.lisp
@@ -71,6 +71,37 @@ undefined."))
`(define-objective-c-method ,name ,@args))
+;; Put simply, a DEFINE-OBJECTIVE-C-METHOD form is transformed into a
+;; DEFMETHOD form along with the code needed for initialisation of the
+;; corresponding Objective-C method and registration of the callback.
+;;
+;; Note that mapping Objective-C methods to generic functions in a naive
+;; way breaks super calls, because the following can (and will) happen:
+;;
+;; 1. Someone sends a message to a Lisp-based instance.
+;;
+;; 2. The callback is entered. It calls the generic function of the
+;; same name, which invokes the effective method applying to the
+;; object and method arguments.
+;;
+;; 2. The method calls super.
+;;
+;; 3. The callback for the parent class is entered. It, in turn, calls
+;; the generic function of the same name, which invokes the same
+;; effective method called in step 1. Oops.
+;;
+;; There are two solutions to this problem:
+;;
+;; 1. Do not use generic functions and methods at all, but define a
+;; function for each callback.
+;;
+;; 2. Pass the class name as the first argument so that the dispatch
+;; mechanism may dispatch over it.
+;;
+;; Option (2), which is what we do, is preferable because it allows the
+;; user to dispatch over an arbitrary set of arguments other than the
+;; first by reusing the standard CLOS generic function dispatch
+;; mechanism.
(defmacro define-objective-c-method (name &rest args)
"Define a new Objective-C method.