ObjectOriented

Object Oriented Programming

All NPL library source code is written in object oriented way. It is recommended that you do the same for your own code.

Lua itself can be used as a functional language, which does not enforce object oriented programming. It is the programmer's choice of how to write their code.

NPL has a number of library files to help you code in object oriented ways.

Referencing a class

commonlib.gettable and NPL.load is the primary way for you to include and import other component. Because all NPL libraries are defined to be compatible with commonlib.gettable, it is possible to import the class namespace table without loading it. This also makes the order of importing or loading libraries trivial.

Remember that NPL/Lua is a statically scoped language and each function is hash value on its containing table, it is important to cache class table on a local variable.

Example of importing commonlib.LinkedList into LinkedList.

local LinkedList = commonlib.gettable("commonlib.LinkedList");

local MyClass = commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClass");
function MyClass.Test()
   local list = LinkedList:new();
end

By the time, you call the function on the imported table, you need to NPL.load its implementation before hand. As you see, most common class is already buddled in common include files, such as NPL.load("(gl)script/ide/commonlib.lua");, this include the implementation of commonlib.gettable as well. If you are interested, you can read its source code. So if you have loaded that file before, such as in your bootstrapper file, you do not need to load it in every other files. But you need to call commonlib.gettable on the beginning of every file using the given library, for better performance.

It is good practice to only NPL.load non-frequently used files shortly before they are used. So that, your application can boot up faster, and use less memory.

Defining a singleton class

For singleton class, which contains only static functions. It is sufficient to use commonlib.gettable to define the class. The idea is that you reference the class,and then add some static implementations to it dynamically.

local MyClass = commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClass");

function MyClass.Method1()

end

function MyClass.Method2()

end

Defining an ordinary class

For class, which you want to create instances from, you need to use the commonlib.inherit function. For implementation of commonlib.inherit, please see script/ide/oo.lua.

The following will define a MyClass class with new method.

local MyClass = commonlib.inherit(nil, commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClass"));

MyClass.default_param = 1;

-- this is the constructor function.
function MyClass:ctor()
   self.map = {};
end

function MyClass:init(param1)
   self.map.param1 = param1;
   return self; 
end

function MyClass:Clone()
   return MyClass:new():init(self:GetParam());
end

function MyClass:GetParam()
   return self.map.param1;
end

To create a new instance of it

local MyClass = commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClass");

local c1 = MyClass:new():init("param1");
local c2 = MyClass:new():init("param1");

You can define a derived class like below

local MyClassDerived = commonlib.inherit(commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClass"), commonlib.gettable("MyApp.MyClassDerived"));

-- this is the constructor function.
function MyClassDerived:ctor()
   -- parent class's ctor() have been automatically called
end

function MyClassDerived:init(param1)
   MyClassDerived._super.init(self, param1);
   return self; 
end

Advanced ToolBase class

If you want a powerful class with event/signal/auto property, and dynamic reflections, you can derive your class from ToolBase class.

See the examples.

local Rect = commonlib.gettable("mathlib.Rect");

-- class new class
local UIElement = commonlib.inherit(commonlib.gettable("System.Core.ToolBase"), commonlib.gettable("System.Windows.UIElement"));
UIElement:Property("Name", "UIElement");
UIElement:Signal("SizeChanged");
UIElement:Property({"enabled", true, "isEnabled", auto=true});


function UIElement:ctor()
	-- client rect
	self.crect = Rect:new():init(0,0,0,0);
end

function UIElement:init(parent)
	self:SetParent(parent);
	return self;
end

-- many other functions omitted here