11 The Built-In Classes

Objects

<object> [Open Abstract Class]

Superclasses:

None. <object> is the root of the Dylan class hierarchy.

Init-keywords:

None.

Description:

The class <object> is the root of the type system. All objects are general instances of <object>, all types are subtypes of <object>, and all classes are subclasses of <object>.

Operations:

The class <object> provides the following operations

Functions on <object> (continued)

Function		Description	Page
identity		Returns its argument.	272
always		Returns a function that always returns a particular object.	336
instance?		Tests whether an object is an instance of a type.	329
object-class		Returns the class of an object.	330
==		Compares two objects for identity.	253
~==		Compares two objects for nonidentity.	254
object-hash		The hash function for the equivalence predicate ==.	329

Generic functions on <object> (continued)

Function		Description	Page
initialize		Performs instance initialization that cannot be specified declaratively by a class definition.	245
as		Coerces an object to a type.	273
shallow-copy		Returns a copy of its argument.	277
type-for-copy		Returns an appropriate type for creating mutable copies of its argument.	277
size		Returns the size of its argument.	279
empty?		Returns true if its argument is empty.	279

:

Methods on <object> (continued)

Function		Description	Page
initialize		Performs instance initialization that cannot be specified declaratively by a class definition.	245
type-for-copy		Returns an appropriate type for creating mutable copies of its argument.	277
=		Compares two objects for equality.	254

Generated with Harlequin WebMaker