[fpc-devel] Partial OLE functionality, automated keword, RTTI on methods.

[Peter Popov]

Hi everybody
Before you stop reading, this email is not a request to implement full  
OLE. I have recently been writing some delphi code which uses the fact  
that Delphi generates full RTTI for automated methods. This includes  
method return type, parameter count and parameter type. Based on this, one  
can dynamically call methods, just by their name. Full runtime type  
checking on the passed parameters (as variants, for example) can be  
preformed, before executing the method. The whole thing does not require  
generation of aditional stub/skeleton code, as in CORBA, for example.

So I have been writing some middleware code which performs remote method  
execution (over sockets, that is not important). Everyting depends on the  
full availability of RTTI for automated methods. My request is: Is it  
possible (that is, easy) to implement the automated keyword and the  
related automation table information on the compiler side. It doesn't have  
to go as far as variant support for TAutoObject, etc.

Thanks
Peter Popov

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