30. Protocol inheritance

30.1. Introduction

.intro: This document explains the design of the support for class inheritance in MPS. It is not yet complete. It describes support for single inheritance of classes. Future extensions will describe multiple inheritance and the relationship between instances and classes.

.readership: This document is intended for any MPS developer.

30.2. Purpose

.purpose.code-maintain: The purpose of the protocol inheritance design is to ensure that the MPS code base can make use of the benefits of object-oriented class inheritance to maximize code reuse, minimize code maintenance and minimize the use of boilerplate code.

.purpose.related: For related discussion, see mail.tony.1998-08-28.16-26, mail.tony.1998-09-01.11-38, mail.tony.1998-10-06.11-03 and other messages in the same threads.

30.3. Requirements

.req.implicit: The object system should provide a means for classes to inherit the methods of their direct superclasses implicitly for all functions in the protocol without having to write any explicit code for each inherited function.

.req.override: There must additionally be a way for classes to override the methods of their superclasses.

.req.next-method: As a result of .req.implicit, classes cannot make static assumptions about methods used by direct superclasses. The object system must provide a means for classes to extend (not just replace) the behaviour of protocol functions, such as a mechanism for invoking the “next-method”.

.req.ideal.extend: The object system must provide a standard way for classes to implement the protocol supported by their superclass and additionally add new methods of their own which can be specialized by subclasses.

.req.ideal.multiple-inheritance: The object system should support multiple inheritance such that sub-protocols can be “mixed in” with several classes which do not themselves support identical protocols.

30.4. Overview

struct ProtocolClassStruct *ProtocolClass

.overview.root: We start with the root of all conformant class hierarchies, which is called ProtocolClass. This is an “abstract” class (that is, it has no direct instances, but it is intended to have subclasses). To use Dylan terminology, instances of its subclasses are “general” instances of ProtocolClass. They look like this:

Instance Object                    Class Object

--------------------              --------------------
|     sig          |    |-------->|    sig           |
--------------------    |         --------------------
|     class        |----|         |    superclass    |
--------------------              --------------------
|     ...          |              |    coerceInst    |
--------------------              --------------------
|     ...          |              |    coerceClass   |
--------------------              --------------------
|                  |              |     ...          |

.overview.inherit: Classes inherit the protocols supported by their superclasses. By default they have the same methods as the class(es) from which they inherit.

.overview.inherit.specialize: Classes may specialize the behaviour of their superclass. They do this by by overriding methods or other fields in the class object.

.overview.extend: Classes may extend the protocols supported by their superclasses by adding new fields for methods or other data.

.overview.sig.inherit: Classes will contain (possibly several) signatures. Classes must not specialize (override) the signatures they inherit from their superclasses.

.overview.sig.extend: If a class definition extends a protocol, it is normal policy for the class definition to include a new signature as the last field in the class object.

.overview.coerce-class: Each class contains a coerceClass field. This contains a method which can find the part of the class object which implements the protocols of a supplied superclass argument (if, indeed, the argument is a superclass). This function may be used for testing subclass/superclass relationships, and it also provides support for multiple inheritance.

.overview.coerce-inst: Each class contains a coerceInst field. This contains a method which can find the part of an instance object which contains the instance slots of a supplied superclass argument (if, indeed, the argument is a superclass). This function may be used for testing whether an object is an instance of a given class, and it also provides support for multiple inheritance.

.overview.superclass: Each class contains a superclass field. This enables classes to call “next-method”, as well as enabling the coercion functions.

.overview.next-method: A specialized method in a class can make use of an overridden method from a superclass by accessing the method from the appropriate field in the superclass object and calling it. The superclass may be accessed indirectly from the class’s “Ensure” function when it is statically known (see .overview.access). This permits “next-method” calls, and is fully scalable in that it allows arbitrary length method chains. The SUPERCLASS() macro helps with this (see .int.static-superclass).

.overview.next-method.naive: In some cases it is necessary to write a method which is designed to specialize an inherited method, needs to call the next-method, and yet the implementation doesn’t have static knowledge of the superclass. This might happen because the specialized method is designed to be reusable by many class definitions. The specialized method can usually locate the class object from one of the parameters passed to the method. It can then access the superclass through the superclass field of the class, and hence call the next method. This technique has some limitations and doesn’t support longer method chains. It is also dependent on none of the class definitions which use the method having any subclasses.

.overview.access: Classes must be initialized by calls to functions, since it is these function calls which copy properties from superclasses. Each class must provide an “Ensure” function, which returns the canonical copy of the class. The canonical copy may reside in static storage, but no MPS code may refer to that static storage by name.

.overview.naming: There are some strict naming conventions which must be followed when defining and using classes. The use is obligatory because it is assumed by the macros which support the definition and inheritance mechanism. For every class SomeClass, we insist upon the following naming conventions:-

  • SomeClassStruct

    names the type of the structure for the protocol class. This might be a typedef which aliases the type to the type of the superclass, but if the class has extended the protocols of the superclass the it will be a type which contains the new class fields.

  • SomeClass

    names the type *SomeClassStruct. This might be a typedef which aliases the type to the type of the superclass, but if the class has extended the protocols of the superclass then it will be a type which contains the new class fields.

  • EnsureSomeClass()

    names the function that returns the initialized class object.

30.5. Interface

30.5.1. Class definition

DEFINE_CLASS(className, var)

.int.define-class: Class definition is performed by the macro DEFINE_CLASS(). A call to the macro must be followed by a body of initialization code in braces {}. The parameter className is used to name the class being defined. The parameter var is used to name a local variable of type className, which is defined by the macro; it refers to the canonical storage for the class being defined. This variable may be used in the initialization code. (The macro doesn’t just pick a name implicitly because of the danger of a name clash with other names used by the programmer). A call to DEFINE_CLASS(SomeClass, var) defines the EnsureSomeClass() function, defines some static storage for the canonical class object, and defines some other things to ensure the class gets initialized exactly once.

DEFINE_ALIAS_CLASS(className, typeName, var)

.int.define-alias-class: A convenience macro DEFINE_ALIAS_CLASS() is provided which both performs the class definition and defines the types SomeClass and SomeClass struct as aliases for some other class types. This is particularly useful for classes which simply inherit, and don’t extend protocols. The macro call DEFINE_ALIAS_CLASS(className, superName, var) is exactly equivalent to the following:

typedef superName className;
typedef superNameStruct classNameStruct;
DEFINE_CLASS(className, var)

.int.define-special: If classes are particularly likely to be subclassed without extension, the class implementor may choose to provide a convenience macro which expands into DEFINE_ALIAS_CLASS() with an appropriate name for the superclass. For example, there might be a macro for defining pool classes such that the macro call DEFINE_POOL_CLASS(className, var) is exactly equivalent to the macro call DEFINE_ALIAS_CLASS(className, PoolClass, var). It may also be convenient to define a static superclass accessor macro at the same time (see .int.static-superclass.special).

30.5.2. Single inheritance

INHERIT_CLASS(thisClassCoerced, parentName)

.int.inheritance: Class inheritance details must be provided in the class initialization code (see .int.define-class). Inheritance is performed by the macro INHERIT_CLASS(). A call to this macro will make the class being defined a direct subclass of parentClassName by ensuring that all the fields of the parent class are copied into thisClass, and setting the superclass field of thisClass to be the parent class object. The parameter thisClassCoerced must be of type parentClassName. If the class definition defines an alias class (see .int.define-alias-class), then the variable named as the second parameter to DEFINE_CLASS() will be appropriate to pass to INHERIT_CLASS().

30.5.3. Specialization

.int.specialize: Class specialization details must be given explicitly in the class initialization code (see .int.define-class). This must happen after the inheritance details are given (see .int.inheritance).

30.5.4. Extension

.int.extend: To extend the protocol when defining a new class, a new type must be defined for the class structure. This must embed the structure for the primarily inherited class as the first field of the structure. Class extension details must be given explicitly in the class initialization code (see .int.define-class). This must happen after the inheritance details are given (see .int.inheritance).

30.5.5. Introspection

.introspect.c-lang: The design includes a number of introspection functions for dynamically examining class relationships. These functions are polymorphic and accept arbitrary subclasses of ProtocolClass. C doesn’t support such polymorphism. So although these have the semantics of functions (and could be implemented as functions in another language with compatible calling conventions) they are actually implemented as macros. The macros are named as method-style macros despite the fact that this arguably contravenes guide.impl.c.macro.method. The justification for this is that this design is intended to promote the use of polymorphism, and it breaks the abstraction for the users to need to be aware of what can and can’t be expressed directly in C function syntax. These functions all have names ending in Poly to identify them as polymorphic functions.

ProtocolClassSuperclassPoly(class)

.int.superclass: An introspection function which returns the direct superclass of class object class.

SUPERCLASS(className)

.int.static-superclass: An introspection macro which returns the direct superclass given a class name, which must (obviously) be statically known. The macro expands into a call to the ensure function for the class name, so this must be in scope (which may require a forward declaration). The macro is useful for next-method calls (see .overview.next-method). The superclass is returned with type ProtocolClass so it may be necessary to cast it to the type for the appropriate subclass.

.int.static-superclass.special: Implementors of classes which are designed to be subclassed without extension may choose to provide a convenience macro which expands into a call to SUPERCLASS along with a type cast. For example, there might be a macro for finding pool superclasses such that the macro call POOL_SUPERCLASS(className) is exactly equivalent to (PoolClass)SUPERCLASS(className). It’s convenient to define these macros alongside the convenience class definition macro (see .int.define-special).

ClassOfPoly(inst)

.int.class: An introspection function which returns the class of which inst is a direct instance.

IsSubclassPoly(sub, super)

.int.subclass: An introspection function which returns a Bool indicating whether sub is a subclass of super. That is, it is a predicate for testing subclass relationships.

30.5.6. Multiple inheritance

.int.mult-inherit: Multiple inheritance involves an extension of the protocol (see .int.extend) and also multiple uses of the single inheritance mechanism (see .int.inheritance). It also requires specialized methods for coerceClass and coerceInst to be written (see .overview.coerce-class and .overview.coerce-inst). Documentation on support for multiple inheritance is under construction. This facility is not currently used. The basic idea is described in mail.tony.1998-10-06.11-03.

30.5.7. Protocol guidelines

.guide.fail: When designing an extensible function which might fail, the design must permit the correct implementation of the failure-case code. Typically, a failure might occur in any method in the chain. Each method is responsible for correctly propagating failure information supplied by superclass methods and for managing it’s own failures.

.guide.fail.before-next: Dealing with a failure which is detected before any next-method call is made is similar to a fail case in any non-extensible function. See .example.fail below.

.guide.fail.during-next: Dealing with a failure returned from a next-method call is also similar to a fail case in any non-extensible function. See .example.fail below.

.guide.fail.after-next: Dealing with a failure which is detected after the next methods have been successfully invoked is more complex. If this scenario is possible, the design must include an “anti-function”, and each class must ensure that it provides a method for the anti-method which will clean up any resources which are claimed after a successful invocation of the main method for that class. Typically the anti-function would exist anyway for clients of the protocol (for example, “finish” is an anti-function for “init”). The effect of the next-method call can then be cleaned up by calling the anti-method for the superclass. See .example.fail below.

30.5.8. Example

.example.inheritance: The following example class definition shows both inheritance and specialization. It shows the definition of the class EPDRPoolClass, which inherits from EPDLPoolClass and has specialized values of the name, init, and alloc fields. The type EPDLPoolClass is an alias for PoolClass.

typedef EPDLPoolClass EPDRPoolClass;
typedef EPDLPoolClassStruct EPDRPoolClassStruct;

DEFINE_CLASS(EPDRPoolClass, this)
{
    INHERIT_CLASS(this, EPDLPoolClass);
    this->name = "EPDR";
    this->init = EPDRInit;
    this->alloc = EPDRAlloc;
}

.example.extension: The following (hypothetical) example class definition shows inheritance, specialization and also extension. It shows the definition of the class EPDLDebugPoolClass, which inherits from EPDLPoolClass, but also implements a method for checking properties of the pool.

typedef struct EPDLDebugPoolClassStruct {
    EPDLPoolClassStruct epdl;
    DebugPoolCheckMethod check;
    Sig sig;
} EPDLDebugPoolClassStruct;

typedef EPDLDebugPoolClassStruct *EPDLDebugPoolClass;

DEFINE_CLASS(EPDLDebugPoolClass, this)
{
    EPDLPoolClass epdl = &this->epdl;
    INHERIT_CLASS(epdl, EPDLPoolClass);
    epdl->name = "EPDLDBG";
    this->check = EPDLDebugCheck;
    this->sig = EPDLDebugSig;
}

.example.fail: The following example shows the implementation of failure-case code for an “init” method, making use of the “finish” anti-method:

static Res mySegInit(Seg seg, Pool pool, Addr base, Size size,
                     ArgList args)
{
    SegClass super;
    MYSeg myseg;
    OBJ1 obj1;
    Res res;
    Arena arena;

    AVERT(Seg, seg);
    myseg = SegMYSeg(seg);
    AVERT(Pool, pool);
    arena = PoolArena(pool);

    /* Ensure the pool is ready for the segment */
    res = myNoteSeg(pool, seg);
    if(res != ResOK)
      goto failNoteSeg;

    /* Initialize the superclass fields first via next-method call */
    super = (SegClass)SUPERCLASS(MYSegClass);
    res = super->init(seg, pool, base, size, args);
    if(res != ResOK)
      goto failNextMethods;

    /* Create an object after the next-method call */
    res = ControlAlloc(&obj1, arena, sizeof(OBJ1Struct));
    if(res != ResOK)
      goto failObj1;

    myseg->obj1 = obj1
    return ResOK;

failObj1:
    /* call the anti-method for the superclass */
    super->finish(seg);
failNextMethods:
    /* reverse the effect of myNoteSeg */
    myUnnoteSeg(pool, seg);
failNoteSeg:
    return res;
}

30.6. Implementation

.impl.derived-names: The DEFINE_CLASS() macro derives some additional names from the class name as part of it’s implementation. These should not appear in the source code - but it may be useful to know about this for debugging purposes. For each class definition for class SomeClass, the macro defines the following:

  • extern SomeClass EnsureSomeClass(void);

    The class accessor function. See .overview.naming.

  • static Bool protocolSomeClassGuardian;

    A Boolean which indicates whether the class has been initialized yet.

  • static void protocolEnsureSomeClass(SomeClass);

    A function called by EnsureSomeClass(). All the class initialization code is actually in this function.

  • static SomeClassStruct protocolSomeClassStruct;

    Static storage for the canonical class object.

.impl.init-once: Class objects only behave according to their definition after they have been initialized, and class protocols may not be used before initialization has happened. The only code which is allowed to see a class object in a partially initialized state is the initialization code itself – and this must take care not to pass the object to any other code which might assume it is initialized. Once a class has been initialized, the class might have a client. The class must not be initialized again when this has happened, because the state is not necessarily consistent in the middle of an initialization function. The initialization state for each class is stored in a Boolean “guardian” variable whose name is derived from the class name (see .impl.derived-names). This ensures the initialization happens only once. The path through the EnsureSomeClass() function should be very fast for the common case when this variable is TRUE, and the class has already been initialized, as the canonical static storage can simply be returned in that case. However, when the value of the guardian is FALSE, the class is not initialized. In this case, a call to EnsureSomeClass() must first execute the initialization code and then set the guardian to TRUE. However, this must happen atomically (see .impl.init-lock).

.impl.init-lock: There would be the possibility of a race condition if EnsureSomeClass() were called concurrently on separate threads before SomeClass has been initialized. The class must not be initialized more than once, so the sequence test-guard, init-class, set-guard must be run as a critical region. It’s not sufficient to use the arena lock to protect the critical region, because the class object might be shared between multiple arenas. The DEFINE_CLASS() macro uses a global recursive lock instead. The lock is only claimed after an initial unlocked access of the guard variable shows that the class is not initialized. This avoids any locking overhead for the common case where the class is already initialized. This lock is provided by the lock module – see design.mps.lock.