Class: PrivateMetaclass

• Inheritance
• Description
• Instance protocol
  • accessing
  • queries

Inheritance:

   Object
   |
   +--Behavior
      |
      +--ClassDescription
         |
         +--Metaclass
            |
            +--PrivateMetaclass

Package:

stx:libbasic

Category:

Kernel-Classes

Version:

rev: 1.14 date: 2021/01/20 14:27:51

user: cg

file: PrivateMetaclass.st directory: libbasic

module: stx stc-classLibrary: libbasic

Description:

A PrivateMetaclass is much like a regular Metaclass, but it is only visible (known)
to some owningClass (which is also true for the PrivateMetaclasses sole instance).

Its sourceCode, package and revision is forced to be the same as the owning classes'.
Therefore, privateClasses delegate some queries to their owning class.

Caution: support for private classes is an ST/X special feature.
         This mechanism may not be provided by other smalltalk systems,
         making your code unportable.
         (However, private classes can be simulated pretty easily, using classVariables
          or classInstance variables ...)

copyright
COPYRIGHT (c) 1996 by eXept Software AG
             All Rights Reserved

This software is furnished under a license and may be used
only in accordance with the terms of that license and with the
inclusion of the above copyright notice.   This software may not
be provided or otherwise made available to, or used by, any
other person.  No title to or ownership of the software is
hereby transferred.

Instance protocol:

 nameSpace

return the nameSpace I am contained in.
For private classes, this is my owning class

 owningClass

return my owningClass

 setOwningClass: something

set my owningClass - this is not a public entry

 topOwningClass

return my outermost owningClass; that is the first non-private
class along the owner-chain.

 isBuiltInClass

(comment from inherited method)
return true if this class is known by the run-time-system.
Here, true is returned for myself, false for subclasses.

 package

return my package-id