From: David King Landrith <dlandrith@...>
Date: 2004-04-03T04:43:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Variable names


On Apr 2, 2004, at 11:31 AM, ts wrote:

>>>>>> "D" == David King Landrith <dlandrith@mac.com> writes:
>
> D> Is there any way to access the name of a given variable instance 
> from
> D> within it?  In other words, for any object x, is there C function to
> D> which I can pass self to determine that the program calls it 'x'?
>
>  Well, with this
>
>   a = b = 12

>  which is the name associated with the object 12 ?

 From what I understand, since 12 is a FixNum, a and b end up being 
separate FixNum objects with their own separate values of 12.  But this 
strikes me as beside the point.

In the C api, each function gets passed a pointer to the struct which 
represents self.  You can pass this pointer to any number of functions 
to get information about self; e.g., class along with variables and 
their contents.  So that for the FixNum 'a' above, we could discern 
that it was a FixNum.  The question is: Is there a method that wil tell 
me that it is called 'a'.  If 'self' end up being a literal, then I 
suppose its name is its value, but it seems to me that this would 
simply be a question of how the interpreter works vis a vis its symbols 
table.

-------------------------------------------------------
David King Landrith
   (w) 617.227.4469x213
   (h) 617.696.7133

Life is tough.  It's even tougher if you're
an idiot.  --John Wayne
-------------------------------------------------------
public key available upon request