[Moose-dev] [Better Comment Initiative]: MooseEntity

We have: ------- MooseEntity is an abstract entity. Entities should subclass this class. The state instance variable provides a mechanism for extending the state of entities. Proposition: ---------- MooseEntity is an abstract class that refines MooseElement. Model entities should be instances of subclasses this class. MooseEntity provides way to add state for model extensions as well as meta information (property and navigation). For example a package can extend an entity to add more state and such extension should be only visible when the package is loaded. Any MooseEntiy can extended with property that is described using the FAME meta model. Here is an example: FAMIXAttribute defined the property AHNL as follow using the pragma <property:longName:description:> FAMIXAttribute>>hierarchyNestingLevel <property: #AHNL longName: 'Attribute hierarchy nesting level' description: 'The hierarchy nesting level of an attribute.'> ^self lookUpPropertyNamed: #AHNL computedAs: [self belongsTo hierarchyNestingLevel] In addition, any MooseEntity can also be annotated with navigation declarations (which are used by the environment to propose navigation options to the user). For example, the class FAMIXClass can define the navigation 'Accessor Methods' as follows FAMIXClass>>accessorMethodsGroup <navigation: 'Accessor methods'> ^ FAMIXMethodGroup withAll: (self accessorMethods) withDescription: 'Pure accessors in ', self name The pragma <navigation:> declares that the method accessorMethodsGroup is the method to invoke to get the associated navigation. The method navigationSelectors (see below) returns the list of methods declaring navigation of a given MooseEntity. Finally, MooseEntity provides the possibility to add simple annotations (we call properties to avoid clash name with Java annotations), to any moose model element. For example, a new information can be added to any model entity and it should be accessible. Like for example a comment. Note that such a solution does not use FAME based description and as such will not appear when we will query the declared properties. propertyNamed: name propertyNamed: name put: value Have a look at the test testProperty for an example of property use. Some API: description returns the description (FAME instance) described the receiver. allDeclaredProperties return the properties (FAME instances) that describe the receiver. The properties are defined using <property:longName:description:>. navigationSelectors Return the list of methods that support the receiver navigation. For example FAMIXClass instance can be navigated via #(#outgoingInvocationsGroup #allExternalMultiplications #invokedClasses #allExternalDuplications #clientClasses #invokingClasses #allMultiplications #allInternalDuplications #abstractMethodsGroup #providerClasses #allInternalMultiplications #accessorMethodsGroup #allDuplicatingClasses #incomingAccessesGroup #subclassHierarchyGroup #superclassHierarchyGroup #methodsGroup #withSuperclassHierarchyGroup #withSubclassHierarchyGroup #classes) Try: FAMIXClass allInstances first navigationSelectors. allPropertySelectors Return a dictionary with all properties of the entity, including metamodel properties, metrics, and navigation groups. Keys are abstract names of properties, values are implementing selectors. for example: #ATFD -> #numberOfAccessesToForeignData means that ATDF is computed by invoking the method #numberOfAccessesToForeignData. The state instance variable provides a mechanism for extending the state of entities.