[Poll] Idiom for saying one type is an attribute of another

[Brian Rice]

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Hi again,

So I'm thinking about our "attribute types", where we have e.g. a  
ReadStream defined on the traits of some other prototype, like our  
collections and files and sockets and so forth. I got the idea that  
there should be a single idiom for all of this, just so it's  
encapsulated and we have just a little less code lying about to make  
up for it.

For example, if we have a type "A B C" and from a method defined on  
C, we want to make a new "A D", we have to use the canonical path "A  
D" to refer to it. Instead, I'm thinking that methods on C should  
(when deemed appropriate by the designer) be able to go up that tree  
to use things.

Now, here's the question: how do I want to express this?

My gut instinct is to add another optional keyword to define: called  
something like &parent:, but definitely not exactly that because it  
would look like an inheritance option, which would be terribly  
confusing. Other name options are &namespace: or &context:. I would  
also name the method the same as the optional.

Another option I considered was to have a &linkBack: Boolean option  
where it would define a method (of whatever name we choose) to access  
the first argument of define: (as in "collections define:  
#Set ...&linkBack: True" would define a method to access collections  
from Set) from the result. But this is too limiting since it ignores  
that there can be traits objects in between, as for the "Set traits  
ReadStream" type of paths.

Opinions? Ideas?

- --
- -Brian
http://tunes.org/~water/brice.vcf

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