[fpc-pascal]Linked List/ pointers/ casting/ OOP Question

[Ron Weidner]

> Note: I don't see the definition of PWidget in your
> code peace. I assume 
> it's a pointer to a record containing a string
> member named meta. But in 
> your procedure
> 
>  procedure AddWidget(PWidget:pointer);
> 
> you use the very same identifier, PWidget, for a
> variable name. That's a 
> bit confusing.

You are the 2nd person that I've talked to that seemed
confused about this.  Since I'm very new to pascal
programming, I'm concerned that I may have a bad
design.  In an attempt to confirm a design problem I'm
going to try to explain what I'm trying to do and ask
for advice on a better way to do it.

Ok... Basically I have 3 objects that look like
this...

              Widget
 ---------------|----------
|                          |
Container Widget    Entity Widget

One of the defining differances between an Entity
Widget and a Container widget is that a Container
Widget can contain other widgets.  (both other
container widgets and entity widgets).  So I needed to
create a dynamic list (linked list) that could address
either a container widget or an entity widget.  So I
created TWidgetList with the field 'widget' being an
untyped pointer.  Now that I have this list, I need to
add addresses of _existing_ widgets to the list.  So,
when I call the method...

procedure AddWidget(PWidget:pointer); 

I'm referring to a PWidget but I don't know of which
type.  (container or entity) 

During construction of an Entity or Container widget,
the string meta is set to identify what type of widget
it is.  Now later, I can traverse the TWidgetList,
read the meta string, cast the widget pointer to the
right type and call the correct object methods. 
(Render() in this case.)

Is my code the long way around the barn or does it
seem to make better sense explained?

Ron_W
  




		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail