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this package is no longer maintained and propably broken

Jackalope

Javascript with antlers

Introduction

Jackalope is a class extension system with an API based entirely on Moose, the post-modern class system for perl.Jackalope is written in Coffeescript, and has primarily been written with a server-side environment in mind.

That being said, Coffeescript is just javascript so Jackalope should be fairly portable. Implementation is kept as close to the Moose API as is in Javascript sane, and possible. Fortunately, surprisingly little trickery is needed to implement a nearly identical vocabulary and appearance usage using basic Javascript techniques.

Usage

Jackalope comes in two flavours: as a base class for coffeescript objects to extend from, and as set of mixins that extend your object on the fly. The Jackalope.Class offers a base class with constructor that initializes attributes when needed.

The Jackalope.extend function mixes Jackalope features into your object. It does not mess with your constructor or any other properties of our object, but offers a factory method for constructing instead, as well as new object methods to declare attributes.

Using Jackalope.Class class as a base-class in Coffeescript

Jackalope = require('../lib/Jackalope')
 
class Circle extends Jackalope.Class
    @has 'radius',
        isa:        'Int'
        required:   true
        writer:     'setRadius'
        trigger: ( value ) ->
            @clearCircumference()
        
    @has 'circumference',
        isa:        'Number'
        lazy_build: true
        clearer: '  clearCircumference'
 
    _build_circumference: () ->
        return (2 * @diameter()) * Math.PI
 
# built in constructor 
 
circle = new Circle( radius: 23 );
cf = circle.circumference();
 
circle.setRadius 90
cf2 = circle.circumference();
 
    

Alternative using mixin ( also works for non-Coffeescript classes)

Foo = ()->
    # your things in constructor 
    
Jackalope.extend Foo
 
Foo.has 'name',
    isa: 'Str'
    required: true
 
foo = Foo.create( name: 'Harry' )

Typeconstraints

Jackalope implements a typeconstraint similar to Moose, but javascript flavoured. Basic types are equal to Javascript's built-in types, but with additional checks for null and NaN.

• Str: Javascript 'string' type, not null or undefined
• Bool: Javascript 'boolean', not null or undefined
• Number: Javascript 'number', not NaN, null or undefined
• Int: Javascript 'number', without any decimal points
• Object: Anything that answers to typeof === 'object' and not null
• Function: Anything that answers to typeof === 'function'
• Instance: Value must be an instanceof this type

Example of the Instance type

class Point extends Jackalope.Class
    @has 'x',
        isa: 'Int'
        required: true
        
    @has 'y',
        isa: 'Int'
        required: true
        
class Line extends Jackalope.Class
    @has 'start',
        isa: Point
        required: true
        
    @has 'end'
        isa: Point
        required: true
        
 
# now do: 
[a, b] = [new Point( x: 0, y: 0 ), new Point( x: 10, y: 5 )]
 
line = new Line( start: a, end: b )