classdef array objects

[John W. Eaton]

Michael, could you comment on the following?

I tried an example like

  classdef classarray
    properties
      x
    endproperties
    methods
      function obj = classarray (x, n)
        if (nargin == 0)
          disp ('constructing empty classarray object');
        else
          ## pre-allocate array of classarray objects
          obj(1, n) = classarray ();
          for i = 1:n
            obj(i).x = x;
          endfor
        endif
      endfunction
    endmethods
  endclassdef

and it failed to create an array object with an invalid object message
coming from mark_as_constructed.  I eventually realized that
cdef_object_array doesn't have the mark_as_constructed or
is_constructed methods.  When I added

  void mark_as_constructed (void) { }

  void mark_as_constructed (const cdef_class&) { }

  bool is_constructed (void) const { return true; }

to cdef_object_array, the above class appeared to work as I expected.
But I also noticed that scalar objects are considered constructed if
the list of constructors is empty.  I'm not sure whether there should
be a similar check for array objects or whether they should always be
considered constructed.

Finally, I see that cdef_object_array is implemented using
Array<cdef_object>.  Is it possible for each object in the array to
have a different set of properties?  If not, then maybe it would be
better for cdef_object_array to contain an octave_map and for
cdef_object to contain an octave_scalar_map for storing properties and
values.  That would avoid the duplication of storing the property
names N times.  Even with reference counting, it makes sense to me to
avoid the duplication.  If you agree, I can take a stab at changing the 
implementation to use octave_map and octave_scalar_map (Octave_map is 
currently used and is obsolete anyway).

jwe