ActiveTcl User Guide

xotcl/doc/langRef.xotcl

Package/File Information

• ::xotcl::Slot:
  
• Attribute:
  
• Class: __unknown, allinstances, alloc, create, info, instdestroy, instfilter, instfilterguard, instforward, instinvar, instmixin, instparametercmd, instproc, new, parameter, parameterclass, recreate, superclass, unknown.
  
• Object: abstract, append, array, autoname, check, class, cleanup, configure, contains, copy, destroy, eval, exists, extractConfigureArg, filter, filterguard, filtersearch, forward, getExitHandler, hasclass, incr, info, instvar, invar, isclass, ismetaclass, ismixin, isobject, istype, lappend, mixin, move, noinit, parametercmd, proc, procsearch, requireNamespace, set, setExitHandler, subst, trace, unset, uplevel, upvar, volatile, vwait.
  

Class: ::xotcl::Slot

Class: Attribute

  Class Person -slots {
    Attribute name
    Attribute salary -default 0
    Attribute projects -default {} -multivalued true
  }
  Person p1 -name "John Doe"

Class: Class

Instprocs

• alloc obj ?args?

  Arguments:	obj: new obj/class name
  	?args?: arguments passed to the new class after creation
  Description:	Allocate an uninitialized XOTcl object or class. Alloc is used by the method create to allocate the object. Note that create also calls as well configure and init to initialized the object. Only in seldom cases the programmer may want to suppress the create mechanism and just allocate uninitiaized objects via alloc.
  Return:	new class name

• allinstances

  Description:	Compute all immediate and indirect instances of a class
  Return:	fully qualified list of instances

• create objName ?args?

  Arguments:	objName: name of a new class or object
  	?args?: arguments passed to the constructor
  Description:	Create user-defined classes or objects. If the class is a meta-class, a class is created, otherwise an object. The method create is responsible for allocating and initializing objects. The method can be overloaded e.g. in a metaclass if other initialization behavior is wanted. The standard behavior of create is as follows: Call the method alloc to create an uninitialized object. Call the method searchDefaults to set default values for instance attributes- Call the method configure to configure the object with the values provided at object creation time. The method configure interprets the arguments with leading dashes as method calls. Call the method init to allow initialization by the class. The argument passed to init are the values from the passed argument list containing the arguments up to the first '-'. Create firstly calls alloc in order to allocate memory for the new object. Then default values for parameters are searched on superclasses (an set if found). Finally the constructor init is called on the object with all arguments up to the first '-' arg. The create method is often called implicitly through the unknown mechanism when a class (meta-class) is called with an unknown method. E.g. the following two commands are equivalent Car herby -color red Car create herby -color red When a users may want to call the constructor init before other '-' methods, one can specify '-init' explicitly in the left to right order of the '-' method. Init is called always only once. e.g.: Class Car -init -superclass Vehicle
  Return:	name of the created instance (result of alloc)

• info args

  Arguments:	args: info options
  Description:	Introspection of classes. All options available for objects (see info object) is also available for classes. The following options can be specified: ClassName info classchildren ?pattern?: Returns the list of nested classes with fully qualified names if pattern was not specified, otherwise it returns all class children where the class name matches the pattern. ClassName info classparent: Returns the class ClassName is nesting to. ClassName info heritage ?pattern?: Returns a list of all classes in the precedence order of the class hierarchy. If pattern is specified, only matching values are returned. ClassName info instances ?-closure? ?pattern?: Returns a list of the instances of the class. If -closure is specified, the resultet contains as well the instances of subclasses. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching instances are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. ClassName info instargs method: Returns the arguments of the specified instproc (instance method). ClassName info instbody method: Returns the body of the specified instproc (instance method). ClassName info instcommands ?pattern?: Returns all commands defined for the class. If pattern is specified it returns all commands that match the pattern. ClassName info instdefault method arg var: Returns 1 if the argument arg of the instproc (instance method) method has a default value, otherwise 0. If it exists the default value is stored in var. ClassName info instfilter: Returns the list of registered filters. With -guard modifier all instfilterguards are integrated ( ClassName info instfilter -guards). objName info instfilterguard name: Returns the guards for instfilter identified by name. objName info instforward ?-definition name? ?pattern?: Returns the list of instforwarders. One can call this method either without the optional arguments, or with the pattern or with -definition name. When the pattern is specified only the matching instforwarders are returned. When the definition option is used together with a name of a isntforwarder, the definition of the instforwarder with all flags is returned in a way that can be used e.g. for registering the instforwarder on another class. ClassName info instinvar: Returns class invariants. ClassName info instmixin ?pattern?: Returns the list of instmixins of this class. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching mixin classes are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. ClassName info instmixinof ?-closure? ?pattern?: Returns the list of classes, into which this class was mixed in via instmixin. This is the inverse function of ClassName info instmixin. If -closure is specified, also the classes are returned, for which the class is indirectly mixed in via instmixin. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching mixin classes are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. ClassName info instnonposargs methodName: returns list of non-positional args of methodName objName info instparametercmd ?pattern?: Returns a list of registered instparametercmds the class (or empty if there are none). If pattern is specified, only the matching instparametercmds are returned. ClassName info instpost methodName: Returns post assertions of methodName. ClassName info instpre methodName: Returns pre assertions of methodName. ClassName info instprocs ?pattern?: Returns all instprocs defined for the class. If pattern is specified it returns all instprocs that match the pattern. ClassName info mixinof ?pattern?: Returns the list of classes, into which this class was mixed in via per object mixin. This is the inverse function of Object info mixin. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching mixin classes are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. ClassName info parameter: Returns parameter list. ClassName info subclass ?-closure? ?pattern?: Returns a list of all subclasses of the class. If -closure is specified, the result contains as well the subclasses of the subclasses. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching subclasses are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. ClassName info superclass ?-closure? ?superclassname?: Returns a list of all super-classes of the class. If -closure is specified, the result contains as well the superclasses of the superclasses. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching superclasses are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists.
  Return:	Value of introspected option as a string.

• instdestroy obj ?args?

  Arguments:	obj: obj/class name
  	?args?: arguments passed to the destructor
  Description:	Standard destructor. Destroys XOTcl object physically from the memory. Can be overloaded for customized destruction process. In XOTcl objects are not directly destroyed, when a destroy is encountered in a method. Beforehand, the interpreter looks up whether the object is still referenced on the method callstack or not. If not, the object is directly destroyed. Otherwise every occurrence of the object on the callstack is marked as destroyed. During popping of the callstack, for each object marked as destroyed, the reference count is decremented by one. When no more references to the object are on the callstack the object is physically destroyed. This way we can assure that objects are not accessed with [self] in running methods after they are physically destroyed.
  Return:	empty string

• instfilter ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: instfilter specification
  Description:	If $args is one argument, it specifies a list of instfilters to be set. Every filter must be an XOTcl proc/instproc within the object scope. If $args it has more argument, the first one specifies the action. Possible values are assign, get, add or delete, it modifies the current settings as indicated. For more details, check the tutorial.
  Return:	if $args return empty current instfilters, otherwise empty

• instfilterguard filterName guard

  Arguments:	filterName: filter name of a registered filter
  	guard: set of conditions to execute the filter
  Description:	Add conditions to guard a filter registration point. The filter is only executed, if the guards are true. Otherwise we ignore the filter. If no guards are given, we always execute the filter.
  Return:	empty string

• instforward methodName ?options? ?callee? ?args?

  Arguments:	methodName: name of forwarder method
  	?options?: -objscope, -methodprefix string, -default names, -earlybinding, -verbose
  	?callee?: named of the called command or object
  	?args?: arguments
  Description:	Register a method for the instances of a class (similar to an instproc) for forwarding calls to a callee (target Tcl command, other object). When the forwarder method is called, the actual arguments of the invocation are appended to the specified arguments. In callee an arguments certain substitutions can take place: %proc: substituted by name of the forwarder method %self: substitute by name of the object %1: substitute by first argument of the invocation {%@POS value}: substitute the specified value in the argument list on position POS, where POS can be a positive or negative integer or end. Positive integers specify the position from the begin of the list, while negative integer specify the position from the end. {%argclindex LIST}: take the nth argument of the specified list as substitution value, where n is the number of arguments from the invocation. %%: a single percent. %Tcl-command: command to be executed; substituted by result. Additionally each argument can be prefixed by the positional prefix %@POS (note the delimiting space at the end) that can be used to specify an explicit position. POS can be a positive or negative integer or the word end. The positional arguments are evaluated from left to right and should be used in ascending order. valid Options are: -objscope causes the target to be evaluated in the scope of the object, -methodprefix string inserts the specified prefix in front of the second argument of the invocation, -default is used for default method names (only in connection with %1) -earlybinding: look up the function pointer of the called Tcl command at definition time of the forwarder instead of invocation time. This option should only be used for calling C-implemented Tcl commands, no procs etc.); -verbose : print the substituted command to stderr before executing See tutorial for detailed examples.
  Return:	empty

• instinvar invariantList

  Arguments:	invariantList: Body of invariants for the class
  Description:	Specify invariants for the class. These are inherited by sub-classes. The invariants must hold for all instances. All assertions are a list of ordinary Tcl conditions.
  Return:	empty string

• instmixin ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: instmixin specification
  Description:	If $args is one argument, it specifies a list of instmixins to be set. Every instmixin must be a defined class. If $args has more argument, the first one specifies the action. Possible values are assign, get, add or delete, it modifies the current settings as indicated. For more details, check the tutorial.
  Return:	if $args empty return current instmixins, otherwise empty

• instparametercmd name

  Arguments:	name: variable to be provided with getter/setter method
  Description:	Add a getter/setter command for an instance variable with the specified name. This method is used for example by the parameter method. Example: Class C C instparametercmd x C c1 -x 100 puts [c1 x]
  Return:	empty string

• instproc name ?non-pos-args?" args body ?preAssertion? ?postAssertion?

  Arguments:	name: instance method name
  	?non-pos-args?": optional non-positional arguments
  	args: instance method arguments
  	body: instance method body
  	?preAssertion?: optional assertions that must hold before the proc executes
  	?postAssertion?: optional assertions that must hold after the proc executes
  Description:	Specify an instance method in the same style as Tcl specifies procs. Optionally assertions may be given by two additional arguments. Therefore, to specify only post-assertions an empty pre-assertion list must be given. All assertions are a list of ordinary Tcl conditions. When instproc is called with an empty argument list and an empty body, the specified instproc is deleted.
  Return:	empty string

• new ?-childof obj? ?args?

  Arguments:	?-childof obj? ?args?: args passed to create
  Description:	Convenience method to create an autonamed object. E.g.: HTTP new creates ::xotcl::__#0, a subsequent call creates ::xotcl::__#1, ... If -childof obj is specified, the new object is created as a child of the specified object.
  Return:	new object name

• parameter parameterList

  Arguments:	parameterList: list of parameter definitions
  Description:	Specify parameters automatically created for each instance. Parameters denote instance variables which are available on each class instance and that have a getter/setter method with their own name. Parameters are specified in a parameter list of the form {p1 p2 ... pn}. p1 ... pn may either be parameter names or definitions of the form {parameterName defaultValue}. If a default value is given, that parameter is created during creation process of the instance object, otherwise only the getter/setter method is created (and the parameter does not exist). The getter/setter method has the same name as the parameter. It gets and returns the parameter, if no argument is specified. With one argument, the parameter is set to the argument value. Example: Class Car -parameter {{doors 4} color} Car herby -doors 2 -color green
  Return:	empty string

• parameterclass class

  Arguments:	class: parameter class name
  Description:	Set the parameter class. The parameter class specifies how parameters are stored and maintained internally. Per default, a method "default" is called, to set the parameter with a default value. I.e., Class Car -parameter { {doors 4} } is a short form for Class Car -parameter { {doors -default 4} } For specialized parameter classes other methods can be called, e.g. {doors -default 3 -updateWidget car}
  Return:	empty string

• recreate obj ?args?

  Arguments:	obj: obj to be recreated
  	?args?: arbitrary arguments
  Description:	Hook called upon recreation of an object. Performs standard object initialization, per default. May be overloaded/-written. It calls another method cleanup which handles actual cleanup of the object during next. That means, if you overload recreate, in the pre-part the object still contains its old state, after next it is cleaned up.
  Return:	obj name

• superclass classList

  Arguments:	classList: ?list of classes?
  Description:	Specify super-classes for a class. "superclass" changes the list of superclasses dynamically to classList. The method returns the current value of superclass, when it is called without arguments.
  Return:	if classList is not specified return superclass(es), otherwise empty

• unknown ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: arbitrary arguments
  Description:	Standard unknown mechanism. This mechanism is always triggered when XOTcl does not know a method called on an object. Supposed that there is no method with the called name, XOTcl looks up the method "unknown" (which is found on the Class Object) and executes it. The standard unknown-mechanism of XOTcl calls create with all arguments stepping one step to the right; in the general case: ClassName create ClassName ?args? Unknown can be overloaded in user-defined subclasses of class.
  Return:	Standard unknown mechanism returns result of create

Procs

• __unknown name

  Arguments:	name: name of class to be created
  Description:	This method is called, whenever XOTcl references a class, which is not defined yet. In the following example: Class C -superclass D D is not defined. Therefore Class __unknown D is called. This callback can be used to perform auto-loading of classes. After this call, XOTcl tries again to resolve D. If it succeeds, XOTcl will continue; otherwise, an error is generated. This method is called on mixin/instmixin definition calls, istype, ismixin, class, superclass and parameterclass
  Return:	empty string

Class: Object

Instprocs

• abstract methtype methodName arglist

  Arguments:	methtype: instproc or proc
  	methodName: name of abstract method
  	arglist: arguments
  Description:	Specify an abstract method for class/object with arguments. An abstract method specifies an interface and returns an error, if it is invoked directly. Sub-classes or mixins have to override it.
  Return:	error

• append varName args

  Arguments:	varName: name of variable
  	args: arguments to append
  Description:	Append all of the value arguments to the current value of variable varName. Wrapper to the same named Tcl command (see documentation of Tcl command with the same name for details).
  Return:	empty string

• array opt array ?args?

  Arguments:	opt: array option
  	array: array name
  	?args?: args of the option
  Description:	This method performs one of several operations on the variable given by arrayName. It is a wrapper to the same named Tcl command (see documentation of Tcl command with the same name for details).
  Return:	diverse results

• autoname ?<-instance>|<-reset>? name

  Arguments:	?<-instance>|<-reset>?: Optional modifiers: '-instance' makes the autoname start with a small letter. '-reset' resets the autoname index to 0.
  	name: base name of the autoname
  Description:	autoname creates an automatically assigned name. It is constructed from the base name plus an index, that is incremented for each usage. E.g.: $obj autoname a produces a0, a1, a2, ... Autonames may have format strings as in the Tcl 'format' command. E.g.: $obj autoname a%06d produces a000000, a000001, a000002, ...
  Return:	newly constructed autoname value

• check options

  Arguments:	options: none, one or more of: (?all? ?pre? ?post? ?invar? ?instinvar?)
  Description:	Turn on/off assertion checking. Options argument is the list of assertions, that should be checked on the object automatically. Per default assertion checking is turned off. Examples: o check {}; # turn off assertion checking on object o o check all; # turn on all assertion checks on object o o check {pre post}; # only check pre/post assertions info check introspects check options.
  Return:	empty string

• class newClass

  Arguments:	newClass: ?new class?
  Description:	Changes the class of an object dynamically to newClass. The method returns the current value of class, when it is called without arguments.
  Return:	if newClass is not specified return class, otherwise empty

• cleanup ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: Arbitrary arguments passed to cleanup
  Description:	Resets an object or class into an initial state, as after construction. Called during recreation process by the method 'recreate'
  Return:	empty string

• configure ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: '-' method calls
  Description:	Calls the '-' (dash) methods. I.e. evaluates arguments and calls everything starting with '-' (and not having a digit a second char) as a method. Every list element until the next '-' is interpreted as a method argument. configure is called before the constructor init during initialization and recreation. In the following example, the variable set is called via configure before init: Object o -set x 4 The method configure can be called with the dash-notation at arbitrary times: o configure -set x 4 Note, that if '-' is followed by a numerical, the arument is interpreted as a negative number (and not as a method). If a value of a method called this way starts with a "-", the call can be placed safely into a list (e.g. "Class c [list -strangearg -a-] -simplearg 2"). See also create.
  Return:	number of the skipped first arguments

• contains ?-withnew? ?-object? ?-class? cmd

  Arguments:	?-withnew?: Option to overload new to create new objects within the specified object. Per default, this option is turned on.
  	?-object?: object, in which the new objects should be created. The default is the object, for which contains>/tt> was called.
  	?-class?: In combination with option -object: If the specified object does not exist, create it from the specified class. The default is ::xotcl::Object
  	cmd: Tcl command to create multiple objects
  Description:	This method can be used to create nested object structures with little syntactic overhead. The method changes the namespace to the specified object and creates objects there. Optionally, a different object scope can be specified and creating new objects in the specified scope can be turned off. The following command creates a three rectangles, containing some points. Class Point -parameter {{x 100} {y 300}} Class Rectangle -parameter {color} Rectangle r0 -color pink -contains { Rectangle r1 -color red -contains { Point x1 -x 1 -y 2 Point x2 -x 1 -y 2 } Rectangle r2 -color green -contains { Point x1 Point x2 } } The resulting object structure looks like in the folloing example (simplified). ::r0 ::r0::r1 ::r0::r1::x1 ::r0::r1::x2 ::r0::r2 ::r0::r2::x1 ::r0::r2::x2
  Return:	number of the skipped first arguments

• copy newName

  Arguments:	newName: destination of copy operation
  Description:	Perform a deep copy of the object/class (with all information, like class, parameter, filter, ...) to "newName".
  Return:	empty string

• destroy ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: Arbitrary arguments passed to the destructor
  Description:	Standard destructor. Can be overloaded for customized destruction process. Actual destruction is done by instdestroy. "destroy" in principal does: Object instproc destroy args { [my info class] instdestroy [self] }
  Return:	empty string

• eval args

  Arguments:	args: cmds to eval
  Description:	Eval args in the scope of the object. That is local variables are directly accessible as Tcl vars.
  Return:	result of cmds evaled

• extractConfigureArg al name ?cutTheArg?

  Arguments:	al: Argument List Name
  	name: Name of the configure argument to be extracted (should start with '-')
  	?cutTheArg?: if cutTheArg not 0, it cut from upvar argsList, default is 0
  Description:	Check an argument list separated with '-' args, as for instance configure arguments, and extract the argument's values. Optionally, cut the whole argument.
  Return:	value list of the argument

• exists var

  Arguments:	var: variable name
  Description:	Check for existence of the named instance variable on the object.
  Return:	1 if variable exists, 0 if not

• filter ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: filter specification
  Description:	If $args is one argument, it specifies a list of filters to be set. Every filter must be an XOTcl proc/instproc within the object scope. If $args it has more argument, the first one specifies the action. Possible values are assign, get, add or delete, it modifies the current settings as indicated. For more details, check the tutorial.
  Return:	if $args return empty current filters, otherwise empty

• filterguard filterName guard

  Arguments:	filterName: filter name of a registered filter
  	guard: set of conditions to execute the filter
  Description:	Add conditions to guard a filter registration point. The filter is only executed, if the guards are true. Otherwise we ignore the filter. If no guards are given, we always execute the filter.
  Return:	an empty string

• filtersearch methodName

  Arguments:	methodName: filter method name
  Description:	Search a full qualified method name that is currently registered as a filter. Return a list of the proc qualifier format: 'objName|className proc|instproc methodName'.
  Return:	full qualified name, if filter is found, otherwise an empty string

• forward methodName ?options? ?callee? ?args?

  Arguments:	methodName: name of forwarder method
  	?options?: -objscope, -methodprefix string, -default names, -earlybinding, -verbose
  	?callee?: named of the called command or object
  	?args?: arguments
  Description:	Register an object specific method (similar to a proc) for forwarding calls to a callee (target Tcl command, other object). When the forwarder method is called, the actual arguments of the invocation are appended to the specified arguments. In callee an arguments certain substitutions can take place: %proc: substituted by name of the forwarder method %self: substitute by name of the object %1: substitute by first argument of the invocation {%@POS value}: substitute the specified value in the argument list on position POS, where POS can be a positive or negative integer or end. Positive integers specify the position from the begin of the list, while negative integer specify the position from the end. {%argclindex LIST}: take the nth argument of the specified list as substitution value, where n is the number of arguments from the invocation. %%: a single percent. %Tcl-command: command to be executed; substituted by result. Additionally each argument can be prefixed by the positional prefix %@POS (note the delimiting space at the end) that can be used to specify an explicit position. POS can be a positive or negative integer or the word end. The positional arguments are evaluated from left to right and should be used in ascending order. valid Options are: -objscope causes the target to be evaluated in the scope of the object, -methodprefix string inserts the specified prefix in front of the second argument of the invocation, -default is used for default method names (only in connection with %1) -earlybinding: look up the function pointer of the called Tcl command at definition time of the forwarder instead of invocation time. This option should only be used for calling C-implemented Tcl commands, no procs etc.); -verbose : print the substituted command to stderr before executing See tutorial for detailed examples.
  Return:	empty

• hasclass ?className?

  Arguments:	?className?: name of a class to be tested
  Description:	Test whether the argument is either a mixin or instmixin of the object or if it is on the class hierarchy of the object. This method combines the functionalities of istype and ismixin.
  Return:	1 or 0

• incr varName ?increment?

  Arguments:	varName: variable name
  	?increment?: value to increment
  Description:	Increments the value stored in the variable whose name is varName. The new value is stored as a decimal string in variable varName and also returned as result. Wrapper to the same named Tcl command (see documentation of Tcl command with the same name for details).
  Return:	new value of varName

• info args

  Arguments:	args: info options
  Description:	Introspection of objects. The following options can be specified: objName info args method: Returns the arguments of the specified proc (object specific method). objName info body method: Returns the body of the specified proc (object specific method). objName info class: Returns the name of the class of the current object. objName info children ?pattern?: Returns the list of aggregated objects with fully qualified names if pattern was not specified, otherwise it returns all children where the object name matches the pattern. objName info commands ?pattern: Returns all commands defined for the object if pattern was not specified, otherwise it returns all commands that match the pattern. objName info default method arg var: Returns 1 if the argument arg of the proc (object specific method) method has a default value, otherwise 0. If it exists the default value is stored in var. objName info filter: Returns a list of filters. With -guard modifier all filterguards are integrated ( objName info filter -guards). With -order modifier the order of filters (whole hierarchy) is printed. objName info filterguard name: Returns the guards for filter identified by name. objName info forward ?-definition name? ?pattern?: Returns the list of forwarders. One can call this method either without the optional arguments, or with the pattern or with -definition name. When the pattern is specified only the matching forwarders are returned. When the definition option is used together with a name of a forwarder, the definition of the forwarder with all flags is returned in a way that can be used e.g. for registering the forwarder on another object. objName info hasNamespace: From XOTcl version 0.9 on, namespaces of objects are allocated on demand. hasNamespace returns 1, if the object currently has a namespace, otherwise 0. The method requireNamespace can be used to ensure that the object has a namespace. objName info info: Returns a list of all available info options on the object. objName info invar: Returns object invariants. objName info methods: Returns the list of all methods currently reachable for objName. Includes procs, instprocs, cmds, instcommands on object, class hierarchy and mixins. Modifier -noprocs only returns instcommands, -nocmds only returns procs. Modifier -nomixins excludes search on mixins. objName info mixin ?-order? ?-guard? ?pattern?: Returns the list of mixins of the object. With -order modifier the order of mixins (whole hierarchy) is printed. If -guard is specified, the mixin guards are returned. If pattern is specified and it contains wildcards, all matching mixins are returned. If pattern does not contain wildcards, either the fully qualified name is returned, or empty, if no match exists. objName info nonposargs methodName: Returns non-positional arg list of methodName objName info parametercmd ?pattern?: Returns a list of registered parametercmds the object (or empty if there are none). If pattern is specified, only the matching parametercmds are returned. objName info parent: Returns parent object name (or "::" for no parent), in fully qualified form. objName info post methodName: Returns post assertions of methodName. objName info pre methodName: Returns pre assertions of methodName. objName info procs ?pattern?: Returns all procs defined for the object if pattern was not specified, otherwise it returns all procs that match the pattern. objName info precedence ?-intrinsic? ?pattern?: Returns all classes in the precedence order from which the specified object inherits methods. If the flag -intrinsic is specified only the intrinsic classes (from the class hierarchy) are specified. If the flag is not specified, the returned list of classes contains the mixin and instmixin classes as well as the classes of the superclass chain in linearized order (i.e., duplicate classes are removed). If the pattern is specified, only matching classes are returned. objName info vars ?pattern?: Returns all variables defined for the object if pattern was not specified, otherwise it returns all variables that match the pattern.
  Return:	Value of introspected option as a string.

• instvar v1 ?v2...vn?

  Arguments:	v1: name of instance variable
  	?v2...vn?: optional other names for instance variables
  Description:	Binds an variable of the object to the current method's scope. Example: kitchen proc enter {name} { my instvar persons set persons($name) [clock seconds] } Now persons can be accessed as a local variable of the method. A special syntax is: {varName aliasName} . This gives the variable with the name varName the alias aliasName. This way the variables can be linked to the methods scope, even if a variable with that name already exists in the scope.
  Return:	empty string

• invar invariantList

  Arguments:	invariantList: Body of invariants for the object
  Description:	Specify invariants for the objects. All assertions are a list of ordinary Tcl conditions.
  Return:	empty string

• isclass ?className?

  Arguments:	?className?: name of a class to be tested
  Description:	Test whether the argument (or the Object, if no argument is specified) is an existing class or not.
  Return:	1 or 0

• ismetaclass ?metaClassName?

  Arguments:	?metaClassName?: name of a metaclass to be tested
  Description:	Test whether the argument (or the Object, if no argument is specified) is an existing metaclass or not.
  Return:	1 or 0

• ismixin ?className?

  Arguments:	?className?: name of a class to be tested
  Description:	Test whether the argument is a mixin or instmixin of the object.
  Return:	1 or 0

• isobject objName

  Arguments:	objName: string that should be tested, whether it is a name of an object or not
  Description:	Test whether the argument is an existing object or not. Every XOTcl object has the capability to check the object system.
  Return:	1 or 0

• istype className

  Arguments:	className: type name
  Description:	Test whether the argument is a type of the object. I.e., 1 is returned if className is either the class of the object or one of its superclasses.
  Return:	1 or 0

• lappend varName args

  Arguments:	varName: name of variable
  	args: elements to append
  Description:	Append all the specified arguments to the list specified by varName as separated elements (typically separated by blanks). If varName doesn't exist, it creates a list with the specified values (see documentation of Tcl command with the same name for details).
  Return:	empty string

• mixin ?args?

  Arguments:	?args?: mixin specification
  Description:	If $args is one argument, it specifies a list of mixins to be set. Every mixin must be a defined class. If $args has more argument, the first one specifies the action. Possible values are assign, get, add or delete, it modifies the current settings as indicated. For more details, check the tutorial.
  Return:	if $args empty return current mixins, otherwise empty

• move newName

  Arguments:	newName: destination of move operation
  Description:	Perform a deep move of the object/class (with all information, like class, parameter, filter, ...) to "newName". Note that move is currently implemented as a copy plus subsequent destroy operation.
  Return:	empty string

• parametercmd name

  Arguments:	name: variable to be provided with getter/setter method
  Description:	Add a getter/setter for an instance variable with the specified name as a command for the obj. Example: Object o o parametercmd x o x 100 puts [o x]
  Return:	empty string

• noinit

  Description:	flag that constructor (method init) should not be called. Example: Class C C instproc init {} {puts hu} C c1 -noinit The object c1 will be created without calling the constructor. This can be used to draw a snapshot of an existing object (using the serializer) and to recreate it in some other context in its last state.
  Return:	empty string

• proc name ?non-pos-args? args body ?preAssertion? ?postAssertion?

  Arguments:	name: method name
  	?non-pos-args?: optional non-positional arguments
  	args: method arguments
  	body: method body
  	?preAssertion?: optional assertions that must hold before the proc executes
  	?postAssertion?: optional assertions that must hold after the proc executes
  Description:	Specify a method in the same style as Tcl specifies procs. Optionally assertions may be specified by two additional arguments. Therefore, to specify only post-assertions an empty pre-assertion list must be given. All assertions are a list of ordinary Tcl conditions. When instproc is called with an empty argument list and an empty body, the specified instproc is deleted.
  Return:	empty string

• procsearch procName

  Arguments:	procName: simple proc name
  Description:	Search which method should be invoked for an object and return the fully qualified name of the method as a list in proc qualifier format: 'objName|className proc|instproc|forward|instforward|parametercmd|instparametercmd|cmd|instcmd methodName'. The proc qualifier format reports the command used to create the method. The only exception is instcmd and cmd, which refer to commands implemented in C. E.g., o procsearch set returns ::xotcl::Object instcmd set .
  Return:	fully qualified name of the searched method or empty string if not found

• requireNamespace

  Description:

  The method requireNamespace can be used to ensure that the object has a namespace. Namespaces are created automatically by XOTcl, when e.g. an object has child objects (aggregated objects) or procs. The namespace will be used to keep instance variables, procs and child objects. To check, whether an object currently has a namespace, info hasNamespace can be used. Hint: In versions prior to XOTcl 0.9 all XOTcl objects had their own namespaces; it was made on demand to save memory when e.g. huge numbers of objects are created. requireNamespace is often needed when e.g. using Tk widgets when variables are to be referenced via the namespace (with ... -variable [self]::varName ...).

  Return:

  empty string

• set varName ?value?

  Arguments:	varName: name of the instance variable