Constructors + Destructors in class helpers?

[David Schwartz 426]

I'm looking for any kind of discussion about the use of ctors and dtors within class helpers.

 

I've seen stuff that says you cannot put class ctors and dtors in them, as well as examples that DO THAT.

 

I don't want to do that; but I am trying to figure out how they get called if they're normal ctors and dtors.

 

I've read that there are other limitations of things within helpers, but ... where do I find a complete discussion of class helpers?

 

The only thing I've found on Delphi's wiki shows adding properties and methods, not ctors and dtors. SO hasn't turned up much of anything useful either.

[Dave Nottage 557]

48 minutes ago, David Schwartz said:

The only thing I've found on Delphi's wiki shows adding properties and methods, not ctors and dtors. SO hasn't turned up much of anything useful either.

Probably because that's the sum total of what you can do with class helpers. If you specify what you actually want to achieve, there might be a different solution.

[Stefan Glienke 2002]

Took me 10 seconds to try it out. Ctor can be added, dtor not (E2295).

 

Which makes sense if you think about it. Adding a different way to create new instances depending on if the helper is there or not is not a problem.

But not how existing instances are being destroyed.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Stefan Glienke

[A.M. Hoornweg 144]

Class helpers are merely a bunch of procedures and functions grouped together that mimic methods of a class. Each method has an invisible first parameter that passes the object and treats it as if it were "self".

So literally nothing gets constructed or destructed, they're merely procedures/functions that act on an object. 

 

 

The advantage of class helpers is that one can extend a class, without actually inheriting from it, and that everything is neatly wrapped inside the namespace of that class.   As an analogy, it's a bit like having  an optional side car attached to a motor cycle, instead of permanently changing the vehicle itself.  The major disadvantage of class helpers is that there can only be one helper "in scope" for your code (so the sequence of units in your "uses" clause suddenly becomes important). 

 

 

 

(Edit) but of course a class helper can have a method that returns a new instance of the class (or of any other class), but that's not really a constructor.  It would be a factory method.

Edited April 30, 2019 by A.M. Hoornweg

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

12 minutes ago, Stefan Glienke said:

Which makes sense if you think about it.

Especially as one cannot override virtual methods in a class helper.

[David Schwartz 426]

Thanks, guys. After some trial-and-error, I realized a helper won't do what I was wanting it to do. So instead I created a wrapper class because I needed to add data fields as well as methods to it. That seemed easier than dealing with a derived object that's part of 3rd-party lib.

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

Both class and record helpers could do with a real upgrade.  The lack of inheritance and lack of support for Generics is crippling.

[Stefan Glienke 2002]

4 hours ago, Lars Fosdal said:

lack of inheritance

Inheritance of helpers is not solving the problem at all - you then still can have the case where you would want to use methods from 2 different helpers which cannot inherit from each other.

The only solution is to make not only the last visible helper usable but treat conflicting methods via overload resolution - just like extension methods in C# do.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Stefan Glienke

[David Heffernan 2345]

C# has had this cracked for more than 10 years now. Why can't Delphi get it done?