Re: Big diatribe on protocols & classes (was Re: Can a Swarm instancebe treated like a SwarmObject instance?

[Paul E. Johnson]

"Marcus G. Daniels" wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "PJ" == Paul E Johnson <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> PJ> So, I think to understand the problem, one ought to remember that
> PJ> the list of methods in the protocol listing is not an exclusive
> PJ> list of methods that an object can carry out.
> 
> Note, though, that Swarm advertises its features with protocols.  If
> you use a method that isn't advertised, directly or indirectly by
> protocol inheritance, you are relying on behavior is not specified (not good).

In short, how are we supposed to drop Swarms, then?

A Swarm can be dropped. I've done it.  But there's nothing in the
protocol setup that says a Swarm can be dropped because class Swarm does
not explicitly adopt any protocols. (The Swarm class does not adopt the
Drop protocol.)  Swarm-the class, not the protocol--is inherited from
classes that implement Drop, and so it seems to me it would be just as
well if the Swarm.h file included <Drop> in its interface declaration. 
Why not?

So it appears that you can't drop a Swarm if you look at its list of
protocols.
But you can, and sometimes you need to if you have a model with
hierarchical swarms that are born and die.  Your note above says this is
"not good" because the behavior is "not specified." But, since Swarm.h
is subclassed from classes that implement drop, then [someSwarm drop] is
a specified behavior.

ugh.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: address@hidden
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700

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