Extending the Haxe Standard Library

[Ashiq A.]

Hi,

I'm in the process of writing (yet another) "extension" to the Haxe standard library. I ran into a problem with static classes (eg. File). I can't extend them with static extensions (I don't remember what it's called in Haxe), because it's static.

This probably rules out the "ideal" API of someone writing "import haxe.io.File" and getting my extensions (if they have my haxelib). This is how Linq works in C#, as a comparative reference point.

My questions:

1) Is there some macro magic or something I can do to make this work the way I want?

2) How did other libraries (eg. thx.core) handle this?

Another plausible alternative is to tell my users to "switch from haxe.io.File to myawesomelib.io.File," but that requires redirecting all the calls to the standard lib. I recall reading that there is some macro magic for this. 

What's the best way to do this?

--Ashiq

[Mark Knol]

You can just create a file called sys.io.File in your classpath. That will overwrite the one in the standard library. Take a look at hxnodejs to see how they add filesystem access for nodejs.

[Ashiq A.]

I see, that's interesting. My case is slightly different: I want to carry along all the existing methods, not rewrite them.

Also, can you please explain:

- What @:dce does

- What @:coreApi does

Thanks,

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Mark Knol <mark...@gmail.com> wrote:

You can just create a file called sys.io.File in your classpath. That will overwrite the one in the standard library. Take a look at hxnodejs to see how they add filesystem access for nodejs.

--
To post to this group haxe...@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/haxelang?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Haxe" group.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Simon Krajewski]

Am 28.04.2016 um 18:26 schrieb Ashiq A.:
> Hi,
>
> I'm in the process of writing (yet another) "extension" to the Haxe
> standard library. I ran into a problem with static classes (eg. File).
> I can't extend them with static extensions (I don't remember what it's
> called in Haxe), because it's static.

I think you can declare static extensions with a first argument of
Class<File>.

Simon

[Ashiq A.]

It doesn't seem to compile for me.  Am I doing something wrong?

Try.haxe example: http://try.haxe.org/#7BBc8

[Ashiq A.]

My bad. It looks like there are some very specific things that need to line up:

- You need (as usual) "using MyWhateverClass"

- The static extension method should be public (the default visibility isn't enough)

- The first parameter is, as you said, Class<File>

I'll open a PR to update the Haxe docs with an example for this. IMO this is really, really, really useful.

Thanks for the help!