Hello,

Today I compiled my FPC from trunk and saw the following possibility:

{ TIntegerHelper }

  TIntegerHelper = record helper for Integer
    function ToString: string;
  end;

...

{ TIntegerHelper }

function TIntegerHelper.ToString: string;
begin
  Result := IntToStr(Self);
end;

...

var
  I: Integer = 123;
begin
  WriteLn(I.ToString); // Prints 123
end.

Or:

{ TStringHelper }

  TStringHelper = record helper for String
    function ToUpperCase: string;
  end;

...

uses
  LazUTF8;

{ TStringHelper }

function TStringHelper.ToUpperCase: string;
begin
  Result := LazUTF8.UTF8UpperCase(Self);
end;
...
var
  S: UTF8String = 'aten??o';
begin
  WriteLn(S.ToUpperCase); // Prints ATEN??O
  // or
  WriteLn('aten??o'.ToUpperCase); // Prints ATEN??O
end.

It's evolution, baby! =)

Thanks alot for this great implementation, FPC team! (and special thanks to Sven!) =D

Looks like Java.

Bart

silvioprog wrote

It's evolution, baby! =)

No, its like Java from years ago! ;-)

Regards,
- Graeme -

Bart wrote

Looks like Java.

hehehe... Great minds think alike. I only read your reply after I posted mine.

Regards,
- Graeme -

silvioprog wrote

Hello, Today I compiled my FPC from trunk and saw the following possibility:

This feature is available since February 2013 already, you just had to use {$modeswitch typehelpers} (I even announced that on fpc-devel, fpc-pascal and fpc-announce back then). What I committed yesterday was simply to allow them by default in mode Delphi as that mode is simply a collection of features supported by the current Delphi version (in so far they are already implemented in FPC). You still have to use the modeswitch in other modes and in all modes except the Delphi ones it's "type helper" instead of "record helper".

Regards,
Sven

Graeme Geldenhuys wrote

On 2014-11-29 15:54, silvioprog wrote: > It's evolution, baby! =) No, its like Java from years ago! ;-)

Just that it's easier to extend and one can decide oneself which methods are available. :) (and yes, I plan to work on the "one helper per type active" problem)

Regards,
Sven

Sven Barth wrote

I plan to work on the "one helper per type active" problem)

Excellent. Keep up the good work Sven!

http://pix.iemoji.com/sbemojix2/0474.png

Regards,
- Graeme -

The REALLY nice thing is that - as soon as the Lazarus IDE is extended to support this, you can do

Var
   I : Integer;
   S : String;
begin
   S:=i.<hit ctrl-spacebar>
end;

and get a list of appropriate methods.

No more searching for IntToStr(), StrToDate, dateToStr... and so on: the IDE will tell you what you can use.

For beginners, this really is an invaluable aid which cannot be underestimated. Morfik Appsbuilder had this already almost 10 years ago.

For this reason, Sven, I would really enable this also by default in mode objfpc.

Michael.

Are you going to be the one to hack FPC's macro facility to define { and } as begin and end? :-)

Awesome. I'll use type helper. =)

Plans to implement the currently XE helpers? (TIntegerHelper, TStringHelper etc.)

Definitely, as soon as I find time.
But initial patches welcome.

Michael.

On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 4:54 PM, Michael Van Canneyt <

Nice. To implement it we can need to enable the {$modeswitch typehelpers}. Can you enable it in SysUtils?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

I hate Java.
(And I dislike (or am too stupid) for any C dialect).

I'm more likely to do it the other way around.
#define begin {
#define end }
(untested syntax, I already stated I might simply be too stupid)

Bart

Just testing:

unit sysutils;
interface
{$MODE objfpc}
{$MODESWITCH OUT}
{$MODESWITCH TYPEHELPERS}
...

sysutilh.inc
...

  function GetModuleName(Module: HMODULE): string;

type
  TGuidHelper = type helper for TGuid
//    class function Create(const B: TBytes): TGUID; overload; static;
//    class function Create(const S: string): TGUID; overload; static;
//    class function Create(A: Integer; B: SmallInt; C: SmallInt; const D:
TBytes): TGUID; overload; static;
//    class function Create(A: Integer; B: SmallInt; C: SmallInt; D, E, F,
G, H, I, J, K: Byte): TGUID; overload; static;
//    class function Create(A: Cardinal; B: Word; C: Word; D, E, F, G, H,
I, J, K: Byte): TGUID; overload; static;
//    class function NewGuid: TGUID; static;
//    function ToByteArray: TBytes;
//    function ToString: string;
  end;
...
sysutilh.inc(330,3) Error: Type "TGuid" cannot be extended by a type helper

I'll leave this task to you. =D

On Sat, Nov 29, 2014 at 12:32 PM, Michael Van Canneyt <

I thought there's a support for that in ObjC categories.

But anyways, beware of trolls!

Troll: Hey! this isn't your daddy's pascal! it's modernized, and everything
is an object here, so make sure you create them and free them like this:
var
  i: Integer
begin
  i := Integer.Create;
  i:=10;
  writeln(i.toString());
  i.Free;
end.

and now with helpers having Create and Free on integer type is possible :)

thanks,
Dmitry
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(the first time I read this message, I thought you were being sarcastic :-)

That is known to happen :-)

But no, it is in fact serious. I myself was incredulous until I have seen it in action...

Michael.