Minutes 2022-03-08

Changes

• Website updates (https://rconsortium.github.io/OOP-WG/): refreshed readme, minutes as articles. Working on documentation overhaul in https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/pull/187.

• new_generic() now requires dispatch_args. This means that new_generic() will typically be called without names:

  • new_generic("foo", "x")

  • new_generic("foo", "x", function(x, y) call_method())

• New class_any (could already define methods for S7_object) and class_missing sentinels.

• When creating an object, unspecified properties are initialized with their default value (#67). To achieve this, the constructor arguments default to class_missing, since NULL would prevent a default value of NULL, and missing() requires too many gymnastics.

  • new_class("foo", properties = list(x = integer, y = double))@constructor

  • https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/blob/main/R/class.R#L209-L212

• See other minor changes in
  https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/blob/main/NEWS.md#feb-2022

Discussion

• Rename method_call()? https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/issues/200 — S7_dispatch() sounds good.
• Abstract classes? https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/issues/199. Easy to implement but is it worth it?
• What should we call the S7 equivalent of inherits? https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/issues/193 — call it S7_inherits() for now; will eventually just be part of inherits. Propose generic extension mechanism for inherits.
• Explicit S4 registration: https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/pull/182
• New names for base types? https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/issues/170 — class_ sounds good.
• Convert and super: https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/pull/181
• Should we offer encapsulated OO? https://github.com/RConsortium/S7/issues/202