Re: Programming it's a play

[Nicolas Roard]

On 2003-09-21 13:32:02 +0000 Pascal J.Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com> wrote:

> > metaclasses ? you mean Class ?
>
> No, metaclass: the class of a Class object.
> Have a look at the files in GNUstep/System/Headers/objc !
> or /usr/include/objc.
>
> Since a Class is an object like any other, it needs a class. The class
> of a Class  is a metaclass. Since the  class of a class is  a class, a
> metaclass is a  class. So a metclass is an object  "like any other" so
> it would need  a meta-metaclass.  Only we stop  the expenses here, and
> make the metaclass special: it's its own class.

OK ! I didn't knew that aspect -- for me classes "acted" as objects (as you
could receive messages) but weren't really objects (no attributes)... Or am I
wrong too here ? I thought there was no way to add "class attributes" (eg
static variables in C++) other than create a static variable outside the class
(to make for example a singleton)

> Any introduction to  Smalltalk should explain that better  than me, or
> the original Objective-C book:
>
> Object Oriented Programming
> Brad J. Cox
> Addison Wesley
> 0201103931

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Nicolas Roard <nicolas@roard.com>
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