rolodex
Class Name

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--rolodex.Name

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.io.Serializable

public class Name

extends java.lang.Object

implements java.io.Serializable

Class Name is the heavyweight translation of the RSL atomic object definition

     object Name is string;					 

"Heavy-weight" means that Name is a complete class, with a constructor, string conversion method, and equals method.

A lighter-weight class definition would have just a single public string data member, with no methods. Such a definition violates our convention of no public data members. A wimped-out translation would be to eliminate the mnemonic identifier "Name" entirely from the design, replacing it directly with type String. This definition violates our convention of design-to-spec traceability.

The problem we're having here is one of RSL-to-Java translation. The problem is due to the lack a simple type definition construct in Java, such as "typedef" in C/C++ or "type" in Pascal-class languages. Such a construct allows the programmer to equate a mnemonic name with an existing type. E.g.,

     typedef String Name;						 

equates the identifier "Name" with the type identifier "String", such that "Name" becomes a synonym for "String". Absent such a construct in Java, we're stuck with defining Name as a class or losing Name altogether by systematically replacing it with String.

A nice solution to this problem would be to define Name simply as

     class Name extends String{};					 

This would provide precisely the definition of Name that we're after here. Unfortunately (and aggravatingly), class String is defined as final, which precludes extending it.

See Also:

Serialized Form

Field Summary

protected java.lang.String

value

Constructor Summary

Name(java.lang.String value)

Method Summary

boolean	equals(Name n)
java.lang.String	stringValue()

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

value

protected java.lang.String value

Constructor Detail

Name

public Name(java.lang.String value)

Method Detail

stringValue

public java.lang.String stringValue()

equals

public boolean equals(Name n)