[31] in Coldmud discussion meeting

Re: clear parameters

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tue Nov 16 17:38:21 1993 )

Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 17:10:12 -0500
From: Quinn Avery <quinn@DUS.Mountain.Net>
To: deforest@netcom.com, ghudson@MIT.EDU
Cc: coldstuff@MIT.EDU

>In other words, you want a method on one object to change variable
>values on another object (it's children).
 
Not exactly.  I think he just wanted unchanged values to reflect the
 -current- value of their parent, and not the original.  I don't know
 if you're familiar with MOO clear-properties, and excuse me for
 seeming condescending if you're not, but it's kinda like a 'clear'
 property is just a hole.  When you want to access its value, you just
 keep falling down levels of inheritance until you find something that
 is NOT a hole (ie: the parent which defines the property, or some
 sub-parent which has changed it).
 
Clear props are quite useful on MOO.  Manytimes you want to change the
 default values of a parent's property, without bothering children
 which have already customised it.  So--you just set the parent and
 all the clear kids use that new value.
 
I think it was more a memory issue on MOO, since these 'holes' take up
 no space, but it's a neat feature of the language as well.
 
-quinn