[M3devel] layout of objects?

[Jay K]

layout of objects?



How are Modula-3 objects layed out?
i.e. "OBJECT"/"METHODS"/"OVERRIDES"
I skimmed m3front and it wasn't obvious.



A common way for C++ "objects" to be layed out,
in the face of no RTTI and only single inheritance,
and virtual functions, is that a pointer to a record
of function pointers is first in the record.


Like this:


class Type
{
virtual void F1();
virtual void F2();
int data1;
int data2;
};


ends up lik more this:


struct TypeFunctions
{
 void (*F1)(Type*);
 void (*F2)(Type*);
};


struct Type
{
TypeFunctions* Functions; /* always first,
or at least a fixed offset, and located independent
of the size of the data; could also be at "-1" or such */.
int data1;
int data2;
};


Type* x;
x->F1();


=>
x->Functions->F1(x);


Functions added in more derived types go at the end.
Ditto for data.
In the absence of multiple-inheritance and RTTI, it is simple and predictable.
(RTTI makes only small modifications.)


Looking through m3front, it wasn't at all obvious if it works this way.


I would like to declare something in C (or possibly C++, but not likely),
such that I might actually recognize the various low level operations
and "uncompile" it back to a typeful/typesafe form, like the above C++
to C transform.



I can't likely uncompile to C++ with virtual functions,
because the actual layout in C++ is not guaranteed.



Granted, I am being lazy.
I should/could compile some small samples.
But I might not get the entire story that way.



Thanks,
- Jay

 		 	   		  
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