Re: [groovy-dev] dump() and inspect()

On 22 Jul 2004, at 15:56, John Stump wrote:
> Greeting groovy developers,
>
> Can someone explain the purpose of the dump() and inspect()
> methods in DefaultGroovyMethods.java? I understand what they do,
> but wonder what the main goal is.
>
> dump() has an odd output format and dumps out only fields,
> including private fields. Should this output *properties*
> instead of *fields*? And should it exclude privates?

dump() was intended as a way of showing the internal structure of a 
class, so yes it was fields. If you wanted properties wouldn't the 
properties() methods work?

> inspect() *seems* like it can produce a string of an object
> that, when evaluated, can reproduce itself. It falls short of
> this goal on POGOs, but could possibly be implemented this way.
> I see some  potential for cheap object serialization using
> inspect() *if* this is the intent of the method.

:)

Yes inspect() was kinda meant to show you the kinds of things you'd 
need to type into a command line shell to create the object.

e.g.

[1, 2, "hello"].inspect()

-> '[1, 2, "hello"]'

with some Java classes & their use of toString() (especially arrays) 
then things don't always map 1-1

James
-------
http://radio.weblogs.com/0112098/