kinetic_sdk 5.0.19 → 5.0.21

data/gems/yard-0.9.25/docs/CodeObjects.md

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+# @title CodeObjects Architecture
+
+# CodeObjects Architecture
+
+Code objects are Ruby objects that describe the code being documented. For instance,
+all classes, modules, methods, etc. are all extracted from the Ruby source as code
+objects. All of these code objects extend from the {YARD::CodeObjects::Base} class, which
+provides basic attributes like source location, source code, name and path.
+
+## CodeObjects Organization
+
+Code objects are divided into two basic types. {YARD::CodeObjects::NamespaceObject NamespaceObjects}
+and non-namespace objects. A namespace object refers to any object in Ruby that can have
+other objects defined inside of it. In the context of Ruby, this specifically means
+modules and classes (both of which are subclasses of `NamespaceObject`). These objects
+act like tree structures, maintaining a list of all of their direct children. All non
+namespace objects are simply subclasses of the Base class. The {YARD::CodeObjects::RootObject RootObject}
+is a special kind of `NamespaceObject` which refers to the top level namespace in Ruby.
+Methods that accept a namespace object as a parameter should also accept the symbol
+`:root` as a shortcut for the root object.
+
+The following is an overview of the classes within the `CodeObjects` namespace:
+
+![CodeObjects Class Diagram](images/code-objects-class-diagram.png)
+
+## Unique Path Representation
+
+All CodeObjects are uniquely defined by their implementation of {YARD::CodeObjects::Base#path}.
+This path is used to locate or store a code object in the {YARD::Registry}. It is therefore
+essential that any Base subclass return a unique String value for #path so that the
+object may co-exist with other objects in the Registry.
+
+In practice, a path is simply the conventional Ruby representation of a class,
+module, constant, class variable or method. For example, the following objects
+would have the following respective paths:
+
+* Class `Klass` inside module `Mod`: `Mod::Klass`
+* Instance method `bar` inside class `Foo`: `Foo#bar`
+* Class method `bar` inside class `Foo`: `Foo.bar`
+* Constant `VERSION` inside class `YARD`: `YARD::VERSION`
+* Class variable `@@abc` inside class `A`: `A::@@abc`
+
+## Registry
+
+CodeObjects classes are coupled with the {YARD::Registry} class which keeps track of
+all instantiated code objects. This is an explicit design choice to allow objects
+to be fetched, cached, imported and exported from a centralized location. As mentioned
+above, this coupling is a result of the fact that each object is uniquely identified by
+its path, which is used to implement lookups. You can read more about the registry
+in the {YARD::Registry} class.
+
+## Identity Map
+
+Code objects are instantiated using an identity-map like implementation that guarantees
+only one unique Ruby object exists for an object described by a specific path. This
+allows developers to create a code object without checking if it already exists in
+the {YARD::Registry}. The following example will only create one object:
+
+    id = ClassObject.new(:root, "MyClass").object_id #=> 13352
+    ClassObject.new(:root, "MyClass").object_id #=> 13352
+
+## Proxy Objects
+
+In addition to providing access to existing objects, a {YARD::CodeObjects::Proxy}
+class exists which can represent an object at a path that may or may not have been
+created. This is necessary to represent a reference to an object in code that is
+never defined in the same body of source code, or perhaps defined later. If any
+attributes of a proxy are accessed, it will immediately be resolved to the object
+at its declared path. In the case where such an object exists, it will act as
+a delegate to the object. However, if the object does not exist, a warning will
+be raised. Whenever arbitrary code objects are used, care should be taken in
+order to make sure attributes are not accessed on unresolvable proxies. An
+unresolvable proxy will return a class name of `Proxy` and #type of `:proxy`,
+for example:
+
+    P(:InvalidObject).type == :proxy  #=> true
+    P(:InvalidObject).is_a?(Proxy)    #=> true
+
+## Adding Data to Code Objects
+
+Code objects act as hash-like structures that allow any arbitrary value to be set.
+This allows easy extending of existing objects without creating custom subclasses.
+For instance, to add a timestamp to a method object (when it was modified, maybe),
+it is possible to simply do:
+
+    object = MethodObject.new(:root, "my_method")
+    object[:modified_at] = Time.now
+
+This value can now be retrieved on this object both by the hash `[]` syntax as
+well as like any other method:
+
+    object.modified_at #=> 2009-06-03 20:08:46 -0400
+
+## Creating a Custom CodeObject
+
+It should first be mentioned that creating a custom code object should not be
+necessary in most cases, except when functionality that cannot be represented
+by classical Ruby objects is added. A good example *might* be a test class,
+which although is technically a Ruby class, has a significantly different purpose
+in documentation and needs a different set of metadata, as well as its own
+representation in documentation.
+
+The {YARD::CodeObjects::Base#path} implementation is the most important part of the
+code object architecture. The first thing any custom code object must guarantee is
+that its path value is unique among all other objects. The recommended way to do this
+with custom objects is to add a descriptive prefix to the path. For example, the
+following is an implementation of the path for a hypothetical `FooObject`:
+
+    def path
+      "__FooPrefix" + sep + super
+    end
+
+Note that if our FooObject is a `NamespaceObject`, meaning if it can have child
+FooObjects defined inside of it, you may need to verify that the prefix is only
+applied once.