This document discusses various ways to handle conflicts that can arise between class attributes and local variables in Ring. It provides multiple solutions to issues like accessing object attributes from within braces, changing the object scope when using braces inside class methods, and conflicts that can occur between self references inside and outside of braces. The key points covered are how Ring searches scopes and the object currently pointed to by self can change when using braces, requiring techniques like copying self or accessing attributes through the class or a local variable instead of self.

1. Ring Documentation, Release 1.9
$name = "test"
o1 = new person
see o1
class person
name
address
phone
Solution (3) - Use the AddAttribute() Method
name = "test"
o1 = new person
see o1
class person
AddAttribute(self,"name")
address
phone
Solution (4) - Use self before the attribute name
name = "test"
o1 = new person
see o1
class person
self.name
address
phone
So what is the best solution to this conflict?
1 - Use the $ Mark for global variables
2 - Optional : Try to avoid global variables and use the Main function
In practice i do both of them.
The other solution
• Use self before the attribute name or use AddAttribute()
69.8 Conflict between Class Attributes and Local Variables
This conflict may happen when we access the object using braces
Example:
func main
name = "nice"
o1 = new person {name="mahmoud" address="Egypt" phone = 000 }
see o1
class person
name
address
phone
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In the previous example we have the local variable name.
The value of this variable will be set to “mahmoud” instead of the object attribute.
Solution (1) : Just use Self
func main
name = "nice"
o1 = new person {self.name="mahmoud" address="Egypt" phone = 000 }
see o1
class person
name
address
phone
Solution (2) : Change the Local variable name
func main
cName = "nice"
o1 = new person {name="mahmoud" address="Egypt" phone = 000 }
see o1
class person
name
address
phone
Solution (3) : Change Braces and use the Dot operator
func main
name = "nice"
o1 = new person
o1.name ="mahmoud"
o1.address ="Egypt"
o1.phone = 000
see o1
class person
name
address
phone
69.9 Using Braces to access objects inside Class Methods
Remember that we have Three scopes (Local Scope, Object Scope and Global Scope) and when we are inside a class
method, we expect that we have access to the object attributes and methods and this is true until we use braces to
access another object attributes and methods because in this case our object scope will be switched to another object.
new point { test() }
class point
x=10 y=20
func test
see x + nl + y + nl # works fine
myobj = new otherclass {
see name + nl
see x + nl + y + nl # error !
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}
class otherclass
name = "test"
Output:
10
20
test
Line 8 Error (R24) : Using uninitialized variable : x
In method test() in file methodbraceerror.ring
called from line 5 in file methodbraceerror.ring
Now what we will do to solve the previous problem?
Solution (1) : Write the code that access the class attributes outside braces.
new point { test() }
class point
x=10 y=20
func test
see x + nl + y + nl # works fine
myobj = new otherclass {
see name + nl
}
see x + nl + y + nl # Outside braces - works fine
class otherclass
name = "test"
Output:
10
20
test
10
20
Solution (2) : Don’t Use Braces
new point { test() }
class point
x=10 y=20
func test
see x + nl + y + nl
myobj = new otherclass
see myobj.name
see x + nl + y + nl
class otherclass
name = "test"
Solution (3) : Copy the self object
We may use this solution if we want to use braces and get access to the class attributes (Just Reading).
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new point { test() }
class point
x=10 y=20
func test
oSelf = self
see x + nl + y + nl
myobj = new otherclass {
see name + nl
see oself.x + nl + oself.y + nl
}
class otherclass
name = "test"
Output:
10
20
test
10
20
Now look at this line
oself = self
The problem with the previous line is that we will have a new copy from the object Because in Ring the assignment
operator copy lists and objects by value (not by reference).
When we access the new object attributes (reading) we don’t have problems
But if we modified the object attributes (Then we will modify the copy!).
Note: We can use braces again with the copy
new point { test() }
class point
x=10 y=20
func test
oSelf = self
see x + nl + y + nl
myobj = new otherclass {
see name + nl
oSelf {
see x + nl + y + nl
}
}
class otherclass
name = "test"
In a GUI application, we may create a class contains the window objects as attributes to be able to access the controls
from different methods. Remember the previous information when you try to access objects using braces inside
methods because in this case you can’t access the object attributes directly and if you copied the self object you will
work on a copy and the new controls that you create will be related to the copy and you can’t access them.
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69.10 Accessing the class attributes from braces inside class meth-
ods
We access the class attributes directly from the class methods, also we have the choice to use the Self reference before
the attribute/method name. Using Braces {} inside class method change the active object scope and prevent us from
getting direct access to the class attributes. Also using Self will not help because the Self reference will be changed to
the object that we access using Braces.
In this case if you want to read an attribute you have to copy the Self object before using Braces and if you want to
modify an attribute you have to the copy from local variable to the object attribute after using Braces.
This case happens when you want to read/modify attribute insead braces.
Class MyApp
oCon # Attribute
# some code here
Func OpenDatabase
# some code here
new QSqlDatabase() {
oCon = addDatabase("QSQLITE") {
setDatabaseName("weighthistory.db")
open()
}
}
self.oCon = oCon
# some code here
In the previous example we want to create the connection object and save it inside the oCon attribute.
The object is an output from the addDatabase() method that we use after accessing the QSQLDatabase() object.
Inside braces we can’t use the Self reference to use the object created from the MyApp class, Because the Self reference
here will be to the object that we access using Braces.
We solved the problem in the previous example by creating a local variable called oCon then after Braces we copied
that variable to the oCon attribute.
The next code is another solution.
Class MyApp
oCon # Attribute
# some code here
Func OpenDatabase
# some code here
oCon = new QSqlDatabase()
oCon = oCon.addDatabase("QSQLITE") {
setDatabaseName("weighthistory.db")
Open()
}
# some code here
The next code is a better solution.
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Class MyApp
oCon # Attribute
# some code here
Func OpenDatabase
# some code here
new QSqlDatabase() {
this.oCon = addDatabase("QSQLITE") {
setDatabaseName("weighthistory.db")
Open()
}
}
# some code here
Note: We used this.attribute to access the class attribute (oCon) while we are inside Braces.
69.11 Creating a Class for each Window in GUI applications
A good way for creating classes for windows is to define the window directly after the class name
In this area you can use nested braces without problems to define the window and the controls, and they will be
attributes that you can access from methods.
Example:
Load "guilib.ring"
new qApp
{
$ObjectName = "oFirstWindow"
oFirstWindow = new FirstWindow
$ObjectName = "oSecondWindow"
oSecondWindow = new SecondWindow
exec()
}
Class FirstWindow
win = new qWidget() {
setgeometry(0,50,300,200)
setWindowTitle("First Window")
label1 = new qLabel(win)
{
setgeometry(10,10,300,30)
setText("0")
}
btn1 = new qPushButton(win)
{
move(100,100)
setText("Increment")
setClickEvent($ObjectName+".increment()")
}
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show()
}
Func Increment
label1 {
setText( "" + ( 0 + text() + 1 ) )
}
Class SecondWindow
win = new qWidget() {
setgeometry(400,50,300,200)
setWindowTitle("Second Window")
label1 = new qLabel(win)
{
setgeometry(10,10,300,30)
setText("0")
}
btn1 = new qPushButton(win)
{
move(100,100)
setText("Decrement")
setClickEvent($ObjectName+".decrement()")
}
show()
}
Func Decrement
label1 {
setText( "" + ( 0 + text() - 1 ) )
}
69.12 Conflict between self inside braces and self in the class region
In the class region (after the class name and before any methods) we define the attributes.
In this region we have access to the global scope and the local scope will point to the object scope.
Three Scopes
• Global Scope —> Gloabl Scope
• Object Scope —> Object Scope
• Local Scope —> Object Scope
Look at this example
New Account {
see aFriends
}
Class Account
name = "Mahmoud"
aFriends = []
aFriends + new Friend {
name = "Gal"
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}
aFriends + new Friend {
name = "Bert"
}
Class Friend
name
Output:
name: NULL
name: NULL
The problem in the previous example is that the Class account contains an attribute called “name” and the Friend class
contains an attribue called “name” also.
If you tried using self.name inside braces you will get the same result!
New Account {
see aFriends
}
Class Account
name = "Mahmoud"
aFriends = []
aFriends + new Friend {
self.name = "Gal"
}
aFriends + new Friend {
self.name = "Bert"
}
Class Friend
name
So why using self.name inside braces doesn’t solve this conflict?
Because after the class region we have
• global scope —> global scope
• object scope —> object scope (Account Class)
• local scope —> local scope (Account Class)
When we use braces we change the object scope, so we have
• global scope —> global scope
• object scope —> object scope (Friend Class)
• local scope —> local scope (Account Class)
Ring search in the local scope first, so using self.name will use the Account class.
There are many solution
Solution (1) : Access the object through the list
New Account {
see aFriends
}
Class Account
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name = "Mahmoud"
aFriends = []
aFriends + new Friend
aFriends[len(aFriends)] {
aFriends[len(aFriends)].name = "Gal"
}
aFriends + new Friend
aFriends[len(aFriends)] {
aFriends[len(aFriends)].name = "Bert"
}
Class Friend
name
Solution (2) : Create Method in the friend class to set the name attribute.
New Account {
see aFriends
}
Class Account
name = "Mahmoud"
aFriends = []
aFriends + new Friend {
setname("Gal")
}
aFriends + new Friend {
setname("Bert")
}
Class Friend
name
func setname cName
name = cName
Solution (3) : Create a method in the account class to set the attribute
New Account {
see aFriends
}
Class Account
name = "Mahmoud"
aFriends = []
friend("Gal")
friend("Bert")
func friend cName
aFriends + new Friend {
name = cName
}
Class Friend
name
Solution (4) : Declarative Programming
New Account {
name = "mahmoud"
friend {
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name = "Gal"
}
friend {
name = "Bert"
}
see aFriends
}
Class Account
name
aFriends = []
friend
func getfriend
aFriends + new Friend
return aFriends[len(aFriends)]
Class Friend
name
Output:
name: Gal
name: Bert
69.13 Using braces to escape from the current object scope
Since braces change the current object scope to another object. we can use it to do some work without modifying the
class attributes and using the same variable names.
new point {x=10 y=20 z=30 start() }
class point x y z
func start
see self # print the x y z values (10,20,30)
new Local {
x = 100
y = 200
z = 300
}
see self # print the x y z values (10,20,30)
see x + nl # will print 100
see y + nl # will print 200
see z + nl # will print 300
Self { # NO Advantage - Search is done in local scope first
see x + nl # will print 100
see y + nl # will print 200
see z + nl # will print 300
}
see self.x + nl # will print 10
see self.y + nl # will print 20
see self.z + nl # will print 30
class Local
Output:
x: 10.000000
y: 20.000000
69.13. Using braces to escape from the current object scope 808