Class as first-class object

Posted by mrpyo on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by mrpyo
Published on 2011-08-17T19:08:14Z Indexed on 2012/06/01 4:48 UTC
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Could a class be a first-class object?

If yes, how would the implementation look?

I mean, how could syntax for dynamically creating new classes look like?

EDIT: I mean what example syntax could look like (I'm sorry, English is not my native language), but still I believe this question makes sense - how you give this functionality while keeping language consistent.

For example how you create reference for new type. Do you make reference first-class object too and then use something like this:

Reference<newType> r = new Reference<newType>();
r.set(value);

Well this could get messy so you may just force user to use Object type references for dynamically created classes, but then you loose type-checking. I think creating concise syntax for this is interesting problem which solving could lead to better language design, maybe language which is metalanguage for itself (I wonder if this is possible).

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