NAME

docs/pdds/pdd15_objects.pod - Object and Class semantics for Parrot

REQUIREMENTS

This PDD is due an overhaul. This requirements section is for language implementers to list the OO-related needs of their language in so as to aid that.

PMCS

Ruby: Just like small talk, everything is an object. I'm hoping to be able to implement core Ruby classes(String, Array, Hash, Module, etc) something like this.

ParrotClass | RubyClass String | | \ / RubyString

Objectspace

Ruby: Objectspace in ruby allows the programmer to iterate through every live object in the system. There is some debate about how to make this play nice with different garbage collection schemes.

Classes

A class is a collection of methods and attributes. It would be desirable, for those classes whose definition is fully known at compile time, to have a convenient way to have the class along with its attributes and methods stored into a PBC file rather than created at runtime. However, creation of new classes at runtime will be needed too.

Meta-classes

Ruby: Ruby has meta classes. It would be nice if classes were objects in Parrots OO model.

Attributes

Attributes are instance data associated with a class (or role, however those are supported). They may not always be of a type specified by a PMC, though boxing/unboxing is of course an option.

Perl 6: All attributes are opaque (not externally visible, even to any subclasses).

.Net: Attributes may be private (not externally visible), public (always externally visible), protected (only visible to subclasses) and internal (only visible inside the current assembly - the closest correspondence in Parrot is perhaps only visible inside the same PBC file). Additionally, it is allowable for a subclass to introduce an attribute of the same name as the a parent class has, and they both exist depending on what type an instance of the class is currently viewed as being (read: there is a difference between the type of the reference and the type of the value).

Ruby: Attributes can be dynamically added and removed at runtime.

Methods

Perl 6: Methods may be public (anyone can invoke them) or private (only invokable by the class they are defined in). Additionally, submethods are methods that do not get inherited.

.Net: Like attributes, methods may be public, private, protected or internal.

Ruby: has a method_missing that gets called when method resolution fails to find a method. Methods can be dynamically added and removed at runtime.

Constructors

A constructor is run when an object is instantiated.

.Net: There may be many constructors for an object (provided they all have different signatures), and the correct one is called based upon the passed parameters.

Inheritance

Perl 6: Multiple inheritance.

.Net: Single inheritance.

Ruby: Single inheritance but support for mixins of ruby modules.

Interfaces

An interface specifies a set of methods that must be implemented by a class that inherits (or implements) the interface, but does not provide any form of implementation for them.

.Net: Interfaces are pretty much what was just describe above. XXX Need to check behavior of you implement two interfaces with methods of the same name.

Roles

A role consists of a set of methods and attributes. It cannot be instantiated on its own, but must be composed into a class. When this happens its methods and attributes become of that classes methods and attributes. This may happen at compile time or runtime, however when a role is composed into a class at runtime then what really happens is that a new anonymous class is created with the role composed into it and then the namespace entry for the existing class is updated to refer to the new one. Note that this means classes must be garbage collectable, with all those referred to by a namespace or with objects of that class existing being marked live.

Perl 6: Roles pretty much are a Perl 6 thing, so the definition above contains all that is needed. An open question is whether Parrot worry about collision detection? For compile time composition that's easy to punt to the compiler; for runtime composition, that's not so easy though.

Introspection (aka Reflection)

Perl 6: Reflection provides access to a list of methods that a class has, its parent classes and the roles it does, as well as the name of the class and its memory address. For methods, their name, signature, return type and whether the method is declared multi are available.

.Net: Reflection provides access to a list of attributes and methods as well as the name of the class and its parent. The types of attributes and signatures of methods are also available.

Inner Classes

An inner class is essentially a class defined within a class. Therefore it has access to things private to its outer class.

Perl 6: Inner classes are allowed, and may also be private.

.Net: Inner classes are allowed and may be private, public, protected or internal.

Delegation

Delegation is where a method call is "forwarded" to another class. Parrot may provide support for simple cases of it directly, or could just provide a "no method matched" fallback method that the compiler fills out to implement the delegation.

Perl 6: Delegation support is highly flexible, even allowing a regex to match method names that should be delegated to a particular object.

Prototype-based OO

Prototype-based OO has no classes. All objects are cloned from existing objects and modified. Requires lightweight singleton creation, without a needing separate class for every instance object. (Self, JavaScript, and Io are examples of prototype-based 00.)

QUESTIONS

Should we have a super or next opcode?

NOTES

Interaction with PMCs

The interaction between objects and PMCs is currently underspecified.

ABSTRACT

This PDD describes the semantics of Parrot's object and class systems. The PDD is divided into two parts, the semantics expressed to user programs through PMCs, and the default back-end class scheme.

Note that the class system is not the single mandated class scheme, merely the one designed to express the semantics needed for Perl 6, ruby, and python. Alternate class systems are certainly possible, and direct compatibility with the system as described here isn't strictly necessary.

DESCRIPTION

This is a reasonably straightforward object system. It assumes that objects have:

• An array of attributes. Note that attribute values are always PMCs.

• A parent class

• A custom (though possibly class-wide) vtable

and that you can:

• Call a method on an object

• Get a method PMC for a method for an object (for deferred method calls)

• Fetch the class for an object

• Subclass an existing object (note that objects may not necessarily be able to have their classes changed arbitrarily, but making a subclass and moving the object to it is allowable)

• Get an attribute by name or offset

• Set an attribute by name or offset

Additionally we assume that all objects can have properties on them, as all PMCs can have properties. The property get/set method may be overridden on a per-class basis as any other vtable method may be.

For classes, we assume that:

• Classes have an associated namespace. (Which may be anonymous)

• Classes have one or more immediate parent classes

• Classes have a catalog of attribute names and offsets for all attributes.

• Classes have a list of interfaces they implement

And we further assume that classes can:

• Instantiate an object of their class

• Add parent classes

• Remove parent classes

• Add attributes

• Remove attributes

• Add interfaces

• Remove interfaces

This list is likely not definitive, but it's enough to start with. It also doesn't address the semantics of method calls, which need to be dealt with, possibly separately. With that in mind, the object system supports these features with a combination of PMC classes (not to be confused with object classes) and opcodes.

IMPLEMENTATION

There are four pieces to the object implementation. There are the PMCs for the classes and objects, the opcodes the engine uses to do objecty things, the specific vtable methods used to perform those objecty things, and the supporting code provided by the interpreter engine to do the heavy lifting.

Please note that Parrot, in general, does not restrict operations on objects and classes. If a language has restrictions on what can be done with them, the language is responsible for making sure that disallowed things do not happen. For example, Parrot permits multiple inheritance, and will not stop code that adds a new parent to an existing class. If a language doesn't allow for multiple inheritance it must not emit code which would add multiple parents to a class. (Parrot may, at some point, allow imposition of runtime restrictions on a class, but currently it doesn't)

PMCs

There are two PMC classes, ParrotClass and ParrotObject. ParrotObject PMCs are the actual objects, and hold all the per-object instance data. ParrotClass PMCs hold all the class-specific information. Instantiating a new OO class creates a new ParrotClass PMC, and enters the new OO class into Parrot's PMC class table, at which point it is indistinguishable from any other PMC class. (This doesn't mean that non-ParrotClass things can be subclassed or treated as an OO class. Neither is that forbidden. Just unimplemented)

It's important to note that all 'standard' classes are ParrotClass PMC instances, and all 'standard' objects are ParrotObject PMCs. We do not create a brand new PMC class for each OO class, and they all share the ParrotClass or ParrotObject vtable, respectively. This distinction is mostly an artifact of the implementation, and may change in the future.

While the internals of the class and object PMCs should be considered black boxes, here's some documentation as to what they are for implementation purposes.

The ParrotClass PMC holds a 6 element array, which is:

0

An array PMC of the immediate parent classes

1

The class name PMC

2

An array of all parent PMCs, in search order

3

The class attribute section hash. Keys are the class name in language-defined format (so perl would be foo::bar, while java would be some.damn.long.thing.with.dots), values are the integer offset from the start of the attribute array where that class' attributes start.

4

The class attribute name hash. Keys are the fully qualified attribute names and the values are the offset from the beginning of the attribute array of the particular attribute.

5

The class attribute array. This is an array of unqualified attribute names.

Note that the attribute catalog holds all the attributes for an object. This includes the attributes in the object's class as well as all the attributes defined in all the parent classes. (Multiple inheritance makes this necessary -- the offsets of a class' attributes will change from child class to child class)

{{ NOTE: one feature I'd like to have is some way to access a list of the object's attributes. The particular use I have in mind is dumping the attributes of an object a la Data::Dumper. It abuses the notion of 'opaque object', so I could be persuaded it's not a good idea. On the other hand, it could be an introspective capability offered by Parrot but not directly exposed in the HLLs. }}

ParrotClass PMCs also have the "I am a class" flag set on them.

The ParrotObject PMC is an array of meta-information and attributes. The elements of this array are:

0

The class PMC

1

The class name PMC

2+

The attributes for the object

Note that ParrotObject PMCs also have the "I am an object" flag set on them.

Opcodes

The following ops are provided to deal with objects. Please note that method calls are governed by parrot's calling conventions, and as such objects, method PMCs, return continuations, and parameters must be in the right places, though some ops will put parameters where they need to go.

classoffset Ix, Py, Sz

Returns the offset of the first attribute for class Sz in object Py.

getattribute Px, Py, Iz

Returns attribute Iz of object Py and puts it in Px. Note that the attribute number is an absolute offset.

getattribute Px, Py, Sz

Get the attribute with the fully qualified name Sz from object Py and put it in Px.

setattribute Px, Iy, Pz

Set the attribute Iy of object Px to Pz. Note that this op stores the actual PMC rather than a copy, and so if the PMC's value is subsequently changed, the value of the attribute will also change.

setattribute Px, Sy, Pz

Set the attribute of object Px with the fully qualified name Sy to Pz

callmethod

callmethod Sz

Call a method. If the method name is provided, we find the PMC for the named method and put it in the sub/method slot. If no name is provided we assume that all the calling conventions have already been set up and the method PMC is already in the proper place.

callmethodcc

callmethodcc Sx

Make a method call, automatically generating a return continuation. If a method name is passed in we look up the method PMC for the object and put it in the method slot. If a method name isn't provided then we assume that things are already properly set up.

tailcallmethod (Unimplemented)

tailcallmethod Sx (Unimplemented)

Make a tailcall to method Sx. If no method name is given, we assume everything is already set up properly.

newclass Px, Sy

Create a new base class named Sy, and put the PMC for it in Px

subclass Px, Py, Sz

Create a new class, named Sz, which has Py as its immediate parent.

addparent Px, Py

Add class Py to the end of the list of immediate parents of class Px. Adds any attributes of Py (and its parent classes) that aren't already in Px.

removeparent Px, Py (Unimplemented)

Remove class Py from the parent list of Px. All parent classes of Py which aren't parent classes of what remains of Px's parent list are removed, as are their attributes.

addattribute Px, Sy

Add attribute Sy to class Px. This will add the attribute slot to all objects of class Px and children of class Px, with a default value of Null.

removeattribute Px, Sy (Unimplemented)

Remove the attribute Sy from class Px, all objects of class Px, and all objects of a child of class Px.

instantiate Px, Py, Sz (Unimplemented)

Instantiate a brand new class, based on the metadata in Py, named Sz.

Vtables

To make this work all PMCs must have the following vtable entries. They may, for non-objects, throw an exception.

The catalog metadata for objects is considered to be attributes on the class, so to get the offset for a class for an object, you fetch the object's class then look up the offset attribute from it. (The class attributes are detailed later) This is safe in general, since the only code reasonably querying a class' attribute list is the class code itself, and if a class doesn't know whether it's a ParrotClass-style class or not you've got bigger problems.

find_method(string *)

Returns the PMC for the named method. If no method of this name exists, nor can be constructed, returns a Null PMC.

Note that for languages which support default fallback methods, such as Perl 5's AUTOLOAD, this would be the place to return it if a normal lookup fails.

isa(class *)

Returns true or false if the class passed in as a parameter is in the inheritance hierarchy of the object.

can(string *)

Returns true or false if the object can perform the requested method. (Including with an AUTOLOAD)

does(class *)

Returns true or false to note whether the object in question implements the interface passed in.

get_attr(INTVAL)

Returns the attribute at the passed-in offset for the object.

get_attr(STRING*)

Returns the attribute with the fully qualified name for the object.

set_attr(INTVAL, PMC *)

Sets the attribute for the passed-in offset to the passed-in PMC value

set_attr(STRING*, PMC *)

Set the attribute with the fully qualified name for the object.

get_class

Returns the class PMC for the object.

Currently Parrot only supports mutating a class' metainformation for ParrotClass classes. This is a restriction which will be lifted at some point soon.

What The Bytecode Sees

The bytecode is isolated from most of the internal details of the implementation. This allows both for flexibility in the implementation and forward compatibility, generally good things. It also allows for multiple concurrent interoperable object systems. The major thrust is for transparent use of objects, though most class activity (including creation of subclasses and modifications of existing classes) should be transparent as well.

EXAMPLES

The following examples all assume we're working with basic ParrotObject objects and ParrotClass classes.

Creating a new class

To create a new class Foo which has no parent classes:

newclass $P0, "Foo"

Creating a new class with multiple parents

To create a class Foo with the parents A and B, the code would be:

getclass $P0, "A"
getclass $P1, "B"
subclass $P2, $P0, "Foo"
addparent $P2, $P1

Creating a new class with attributes

Adding the attributes a and b to the new class Foo:

newclass $P0, "Foo"
addattribute $P0, "a"   # This is offset 0 + classoffset
addattribute $P0, "b"   # This is offset 1 + classoffset

Instantiating an object

Assuming we want an object of class Foo:

.local int FooType
.local pmc MyObject
find_type FooType, "Foo"
new MyObject, FooType

Calling a method on an object

Calling the method Xyzzy on an object, assuming the PDD03 calling conventions are respected:

callmethod "Xyzzy"

set S0, "Xyzzy"
callmethod

Or, if a return continuation needs constructing:

callmethodcc "Xyzzy"

set S0, "Xyzzy"
callmethodcc

Accessing attributes from within a class

Assuming we've an object that has class Foo in it somewhere and want to get the second attribute b out of it:

.local int BaseOffset
.local int BOffset
classoffset BaseOffset, $P0, "Foo"
BOffset = BaseOffset + 1
getattribute $P1, $P0, BOffset

Or with named access, if it isn't time critical:

getattribute $P1, $P0, "Foo\x0b"

Explanations

To get a new class, you can do a newclass, which creates a new class with no parents besides parrot's default super-ish parent class. (Which doesn't appear in the class list anywhere, though arguably it ought to)

To get a new child class, you have two potential options:

Subclass the parent

Create a new standalone class and add a parent

Both ways work. It is, however, more efficient to use the first method, and just subclass the immediate parent class of your new class.

When adding in extra parents in a multiple-inheritance scenario, subclass the first class in the immediate parent list then use the addparent op to add in the rest of the immediate parents.

Do be aware that, right now, you should not add attributes or parents to a class that's been subclassed or has had objects instantiated. This will leave the internal structures of the classes and objects in an inconsistent state and things won't work at all the way you want them to. At the moment parrot won't warn if you do this, but it will soon. The restriction on parent list changes and attribute addition will be lifted in future releases, though doing so will be an expensive operation.

VTABLE OVERLOADING

Classes may override the vtable methods, allowing objects of a class to behave like a primitive PMC. Each vtable slot has a corresponding named method that parrot looks for in your class hierarchy when an object is used in a primitive context.

To use these properly at a low-level requires a good working knowledge of the way Parrot works--generally for higher-level languages the language compiler or runtime will provide easier-to-use wrappers. These methods are all prototyped, and take a single fixed argument list, and return at most a single value.

While vtable methods may take a continuation, those continuations may not escape the vtable method's execution. This is due to the way that vtable methods are called by the interpreter--once a vtable method is exited any continuation taken within it is no longer valid and may not be used.

Note that any class method that wishes to use parrot's multi-method dispatch system may do so. This is, in fact, encouraged, though it is not required. In the absence of explicit multimethod dispatch, a left-side wins scheme is used.

The following list details the raw method names:

__init

Called when the object is first created.

__init_pmc

Alternative entry point called when object is first created. Accepts a PMC parameter used to initialize the given object. Interpretation of the PMC is PMC-specific.

NOTE: It is strongly suggested that init_pmc(PMCNULL) be equivalent to init(), though there will of necessity be exceptions.

__morph

__mark

Called when the DOD is tracing live PMCs. If this method is called then the code must mark all strings and PMCs that it contains as live, otherwise they may be collected.

This method is only called if the PMC is flagged as having a special mark routine, and is not necessary for normal objects.

__destroy

Called when the object is destroyed. This method is only called if the PMC is marked as having an active finalizer.

__getprop

__setprop

__delprop

__getprops

__type

__type_keyed

__type_keyed_int

__type_keyed_str

__subtype

__name

__clone

__find_method

__get_integer

Return the integer value of the object

__get_integer_keyed

__get_integer_keyed_int

__get_integer_keyed_str

__get_number

Return the floating-point value of the object

__get_number_keyed

__get_number_keyed_int

__get_number_keyed_str

__get_bignum

Return the extended precision numeric value of the PMC

__get_string

Return the string value of the PMC

__get_string_keyed

__get_string_keyed_int

__get_string_keyed_str

__get_bool

Return the true/false value of the PMC

__get_bool_keyed

__get_bool_keyed_int

__get_bool_keyed_str

__get_pmc

Return the PMC for this PMC.

__get_pmc_keyed

__get_pmc_keyed_int

__get_pmc_keyed_str

__get_pointer

__get_pointer_keyed

__get_pointer_keyed_int

__get_pointer_keyed_str

__set_integer_native

Set the integer value of this PMC

__set_integer_same

__set_integer_keyed

__set_integer_keyed_int

__set_integer_keyed_str

__set_number_native

Set the floating-point value of this PMC

__set_number_same

__set_number_keyed

__set_number_keyed_int

__set_number_keyed_str

__set_bignum_int

Set the extended-precision value of this PMC

__set_string_native

Set the string value of this PMC

__set_string_same

__set_string_keyed

__set_string_keyed_int

__set_string_keyed_str

__set_bool

Set the true/false value of this PMC

__assign_pmc

Set the value to the value of the passed in

__set_pmc

Make the PMC refer to the PMC passed in

__set_pmc_keyed

__set_pmc_keyed_int

__set_pmc_keyed_str

__set_pointer

__set_pointer_keyed

__set_pointer_keyed_int

__set_pointer_keyed_str

__elements

Return the number of elements in the PMC, if the PMC is treated as an aggregate.

__pop_integer

__pop_float

__pop_string

__pop_pmc

__push_integer

__push_float

__push_string

__push_pmc

__shift_integer

__shift_float

__shift_string

__shift_pmc

__unshift_integer

__unshift_float

__unshift_string

__unshift_pmc

__splice

__add

__add_int

__add_float

__subtract

__subtract_int

__subtract_float

__multiply

__multiply_int

__multiply_float

__divide

__divide_int

__divide_float

__modulus

__modulus_int

__modulus_float

__cmodulus

__cmodulus_int

__cmodulus_float

__neg

__bitwise_or

__bitwise_or_int

__bitwise_and

__bitwise_and_int

__bitwise_xor

__bitwise_xor_int

__bitwise_ors

__bitwise_ors_str

__bitwise_ands

__bitwise_ands_str

__bitwise_xors

__bitwise_xors_str

__bitwise_not

__bitwise_shl

__bitwise_shl_int

__bitwise_shr

__bitwise_shr_int

__concatenate

__concatenate_native

__is_equal

__is_same

__cmp

__cmp_num

__cmp_string

__logical_or

__logical_and

__logical_xor

__logical_not

__repeat

__repeat_int

__increment

__decrement

__exists_keyed

__exists_keyed_int

__exists_keyed_str

__defined

__defined_keyed

__defined_keyed_int

__defined_keyed_str

__delete_keyed

__delete_keyed_int

__delete_keyed_str

__nextkey_keyed

__nextkey_keyed_int

__nextkey_keyed_str

__substr

__substr_str

__invoke

__can

__does

__isa

__freeze

__thaw

__thawfinish

__visit

__share

TRANSLATION AND GLOSSARY

Since every object system on the planet shares a common set of terms but uses them completely differently, this section defines

Glossary

Property

A name and value pair attached to a PMC. Properties may be attached to the PMC in its role as a container or the PMC in its role as a value.

Properties are global to the PMC. That is there can only be one property named "FOO" attached to a PMC, and it is globally visible to all inspectors of the PMCs properties. They are not restricted by class.

Properties are generally assigned at runtime, and a particular property may or may not exist on a PMC at any particular time. Properties are not restricted to objects as such, and any PMC may have a property attached to it.

Attribute

An attribute is a slot in an object that contains a value, generally a PMC. (Containing non-PMCs leads to interesting garbage collection issues at the moment) Attributes are referenced either by slot number or by class name/attribute name pairs. (At least conceptually)

Attributes are set on a class-wide basis, and all the objects of a class will have the same set of attributes. Generally attributes aren't added or removed from classes at runtime, as this would require resizing and moving the elements of the attribute arrays of existing objects, and potentially recompiling code with fixed attribute offsets embedded in it. Most OO languages don't allow attribute changes to existing classes, though parrot's base attribute system does allow this.

The fully qualified name of an attribute is the classname, a null, and the attribute name. Parrot synthesizes the fully-qualified name where it needs to.

Method

In its strictest sense, a method is a chunk of code that you call with an object in the object slot of the calling conventions.

More generally, a method is some piece of code that you invoke by name through an object. You call the object's "Invoke a method" vtable entry, passing in the method name (Assuming we don't just get it from the sub name register, per calling conventions). The object is then responsible for doing something with the method being requested. Presumably it calls the method, though this isn't strictly required.

Delegate

An object that is transparently (to the user) embedded in another object. Delegate objects are used in those cases where we can't inherit from a class because the class is from a different object universe.

As an example, assume you have a class A, which inherits from class B. The classes are incompatible, so Parrot can't automatically meld B into A, as it might if they were. When instantiating an object of class A, Parrot will automatically instantiate an object of class B and embed it in the object of class A. The object of class B is class A's delegate--when a method call comes in that A can't handle, that method call is delegated to B.

Parent class

Also called the super-class. The parent class is, in an inheritance situation, the class being derived from. If A derives from B, B is the parent class of A.

Child class

Also called the sub-class. The child class is, in an inheritance situation, the class doing the deriving. If A derives from B, A is the child class.

Translation

The following list a set of languages, then within each language what the parrot term translates to.

Python

Attribute

A Python attribute maps to a parrot property

.NET

Attribute

What .NET calls an attribute parrot calls a property

Property

What .NET calls a property we call an attribute

Generic Terminology

Instance Variable

Instance Variables map to what we call attributes

ATTACHMENTS

None.

FOOTNOTES

None.

REFERENCES

None.

VERSION

CURRENT

Maintainer: Dan Sugalski
Class: Internals
PDD Number: 15
Version: 1.2
Status: Developing
Last Modified: February 09, 2004
PDD Format: 1
Language: English

HISTORY

Version 1.3

April 3, 2004

Version 1.2

February 9, 2004

Version 1.1

March 11, 2002

version 1

None. First version

CHANGES

Version 1.3

Removed some unimplemented notes. Changed vtables to get_*, set_* so that they match other vtable function syntax.

Version 1.2

A complete overhaul from the original spec.

Version 1.1

Removed attributes from the object interface and put them in the class interface section, where they belong.

Version 1.0

None. First version

cpanm Parrot::Op

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Parrot::Op