"George van den Driessche" <grebe@bigfoot.com> writes:
I'm stumped by how to store this information in any sort of container though, since the properties are of different types. Any thoughts, or is this madness?
The properties are of different types, but the type information for properties will always be of the same type :) So you can generate a property set for your class, that includes the dictionary that maps names to property_type_info structures. Each property_type_info would be automatically generated from the static type of the property.
The thing that's bugging me is that all the reflection mechanism is covered by Boost.Python because it relies on the same principles. I *think* the boost-langbinding list seems to know this, since you also need the reflection capabilities in order to support languages that aren't Python. But that list doesn't seem to have much traffic so I haven't much to go on.
We did some work on that project recently and presented it at the Boost workshop at OOPSLA. See http://boost-consulting.com/writing/oopsla04.html http://boost-consulting.com/writing/langbinding.ppt
In order to avoid too many reinvented wheels, I'd like to see Boost.Python split neatly into two stages:
(a) Reflect C++ types into C++ objects. Each type for which you provide a reflection map will correspond to exactly one property_set object, which would contain a set of property_type_info objects. (b) Expose the types to Python using the objects created by (a).
We do have a front-end/back-end architecture, but I'm not sure whether we're doing what you want.
Once you've made that split, then you can add: (c) Expose the types to Lua using the objects created by (a). (d) Expose the types to <language-of-your-choice> using the objects created by (a). (e) Serialise the types, using results of (a).
This I have serious doubts about. What you'd expose for Python/Lua binding would be an object's public interface: its abstraction. In order to do serialization in that way, you'd likely have to expose an object's guts: its implementation details.
(f) Bind types to GUI objects, using results of (a).
What does it mean to bind a type to a GUI object?
(g) ... you get the point.
I'm not sure. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting http://www.boost-consulting.com