I've tried adding a feature similar to the `attr_accessor` method 
http://www.rubyist.net/~slagell/ruby/accessors.html%|%found in Ruby%|%
to [TclOO].

I have to admit that this is hacky at best, and not useful when not all your variables should be accessors, but it might serve as a starting point for others.

One thing I learned about [TclOO] is that it's very hard to add new methods to `oo::define`.
After reading the source a bit I found that it uses a special stack frame.

This way it tries to restrict usage of its commands within a single stack level, which is impossible to use with uplevel.

I'm very skeptical about the need for such a restriction, given that it will lead to hacks similar to this one.
It's definitely possible right now to execute `oo::define` commands within the `oo::define` script, so the restriction is weak at best.
What would be needed for easy [Pure-Tcl] extensions of [TclOO] is availability of the class name or allowing uplevel into the stack frame.

======
package require TclOO

proc oo::define::accessor args {
  set class [lindex [info level 1] 1]

  ::oo::define $class variable {*}$args
  foreach {name} $args {
    ::oo::define $class method $name {} "return $$name"
    ::oo::define $class method $name= {new} "return \[set $name \$new]"
  }
}

oo::class create Person {
  accessor first last

  method name {} {
    return "[my first] [my last]"
  }
}

set person [Person new]
$person first= John
$person last= Doe
puts [$person name] # => John Doe
======

----
[DKF]: The restriction on `[oo::define]`'s magic is because the context (i.e., the class being modified) is stored as a special field in the stack frame. This is a little odd in some senses, but means that nesting one `oo::define` inside another (referring to different classes) will work ''exactly'' as expected, with zero surprises. And it's probably easier to use “`[uplevel] 1 [[list method ...]]`” instead of what you're doing here.

----
Here is my simple baseclass which makes all variables of an object derived from baseclass accessible. Provided you known its name.

======
package require TclOO

oo::class create baseclass {
   constructor {} {}
   
   method set {name {value "-1.234e1234"}} {
      # access and set member variables.
      my variable $name ;# variable to be accessed
      if {$value != "-1.234e-1234"} {
         set $name $value
      } else {
         set $name
      }
   }
}

 # Example:
oo::class create tile {
   superclass baseclass
   constructor {i m p} {
      my variable v1
      my variable colour
      my variable picture
      set v1 $m
      set colour $p
      set picture $i
   }
}

 # Exercise it:
set a [tile new 1 2 3 ]
set b [tile new 11 12 13 ]
set c [tile new 9 8 7]

$a set v1 ;# return value of v1 in object a
$a set colour ;# etc etc
$b set v1 ;# and so on

$b set v1 123.456 ;# change value of v1 in object b
$b set v1
======

Note that the method "set" is similar to set for plain variables. That is it sets a value or gets returns its value.

I chose the default string as "-1.234e1234" since it is meaningless, would interpret as a too small to represent number, and is unlikely to occur in any reasonable program.

<<categories>> Object Orientation