A Fake Object Framework

Fri. Aug 04 2017

mathematica

b3m2a1

I promised in my post on chemistry and objects that I’d walk through the details of building an object framework in Mathematica so here we are. For those who would like to follow along, here is the package that implements this framework.

Just as a quick refresher, there were a few properties that we decided we’d use in our framework. These were:

Objects are glorified hash-maps
Objects have types
Methods get bound to objects
There are properties which are bound methods that evaluate when accessed
Everything important is vectorized (i.e. can be done over vectors)

We’ll start with the first of those.

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Building an Object

Objects as Hash Maps

A hash-map is a data structure that provides very efficient look-up and insertion. Both of these will be crucial for us. Mathematica’s top-level version of as hash-map is called an Association . So we’ll simply store all object data in one of these. With that in mind, we could then go one of three routes:

Each object stores its data in a symbol it holds
All object data is stored in a single symbol
Each object stores its data in a symbol and there’s a central store for all these symbols

For reasons of convenience we will choose the second. If there will be massive amounts of object data store the last may be the best, performance wise, but provides somewhat more involved property setting. The first makes it hard to know what exactly is an object. Both the first and last similarly make restoring state somewhat more challenging.

So we’ll initialize an Association for storing all of our data:

$OFObjectTable = <|
     
   "Types" -> <|
        "Object" -> <||>
        |>,
     "Objects" -> <||>
     |>;

Note that we have two sub-maps, one for basic type data, one for object data. This leads us to the second point on that list, “Objects have types”. But before we even get there, we’ll need to look at how we define our objects.

Object Creation

Now that we know how we’ll store our objects, the question is how should we build a new one. Since we’re working with an Association we need some a way to define a unique key for each object. There are a few possible routes here, but the one I’ve found to be easiest works through CreateUUID for the following reasons:

It’s essentially assured to be universally unique, which makes storage and recall easy
The keys are strings, so assured to be without side effects
We can attach little meta-tags to the front of the key to give us a hint of what we’re working with

For our object definitions we’ll take an Association of properties as the core data, where we extract the type from the "ObjectType" field passed. Since it’s vectorized we’ll write it with a List of Association objects in mind:

Options[OFNewObject] =
   {
     "Initialize" -> True,
     "UUIDMethod" -> (CreateUUID[# <> "-"] &)
     };
OFNewObject[objs : {__Association}, ops : OptionsPattern[]] :=
   
  Catch@
    Module[{
       types = Lookup[objs, "ObjectType", "Object"],
       args = Lookup[objs, "ObjectInitializationArguments", {}],
       uuids,
       objlist
       },
      If[! AllTrue[types, StringQ], 
     Message[OFNewObject::types, types]; Throw[$Failed]];
      uuids =
        MapIndexed[
          OptionValue["UUIDMethod"],
          types
          ];
      If[! AllTrue[uuids, StringQ], 
     Message[OFNewObject::uuids, uuids]; Throw[$Failed]];
      objlist = OFObject /@ uuids;
      AssociateTo[$OFObjectTable["Objects"],
        MapThread[
          #3 ->
             Join[
               #,
               <|
                 "ObjectType" -> #2,
                 "ObjectID" -> #3
                 |>
               ] &,
          {
            KeyDrop[objs, "ObjectInitializationArguments"],
            types,
            uuids
            }]
        ];
      If[OptionValue["Initialize"],
        MapThread[
          Function[# @@ #2],
          {
            OFLookup[objlist, "ObjectInitialization", Identity],
            args
            }]
        ];
      objlist
     ];

What this does is determines the type for each object, creates a new UUID for each, sticks UUID -> Association pairs into the $OFObjectTable and then calls an "ObjectInitialization" function on each with some collection of passed arguments, assuming it’s been defined. Then it wraps all the new UUIDs in an OFObject head and spits them back out.

One thing to notice is that this is actually already boot-strapping. We call the standard object framework lookup function, OFLookup , in the definition process.

Then, since making new objects like this is a little bit unwieldy to use, we’ll put some syntactic sugar on it:

OFNewObject[a : {((_String -> _Association) | _String) ..}] :=
   
  OFNewObject@
     Map[
       If[Length[#] == 2,
          Append[#[[2]], "ObjectType" -> #[[1]]],
          <|"ObjectType" -> #|>
          ] &,
       a];
OFNewObject[
   a : _Association | _String | (_String -> _Association)] :=
   
  First@OFNewObject[{a}];

These two make creating new objects just a little bit nicer.

Even the vectorized form is a little bit slow:

RepeatedTiming[
  objs = OFNewObject[ConstantArray["Object", 100000]];] // First

(*Out:*)

2.55

But that’s largely unavoidable. It can be sped up somewhat by providing precomputed UUIDs:

With[{uuids = ToString /@ Range[100000]},
  RepeatedTiming[
     objs =
        OFNewObject[ConstantArray["Object", 100000],
          "UUIDMethod" -> (uuids[[First@#2]] &)
          ];] // First
  ]

(*Out:*)

1.82

Or by specifying no initialization should happen:

RepeatedTiming[
   objs =
      OFNewObject[ConstantArray["Object", 100000],
        "Initialize" -> False
        ];] // First

(*Out:*)

1.97

But beyond that there’s not much one can do.

Object Types, Part 1

In our setup, types serve as meta objects, from which instances inherit property and are spawned. We’ll implement a single-inheritance scheme, since I’m lazy. Our types will live in the "Types" sub- Association of our $OFObjectTable . They will function almost exactly like objects, though.

We’ll get into a larger discussion about them later

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Object Basics

Property Lookup

This is the heart of the project, from which everything else will derive. Our lookup will be implemented in a vectorized manner, layered on Lookup . Our base case will just be looking up a raw object Association . But first, since we noted our types will work like objects, we need a nice way to do lookups on either. The way we’ll do that is through a variable $OFLookupGroup which will be "Objects" or "Types" . Now for the raw data lookup:

OFLookup[k_String | OFObject[k_String]] :=
   
  Lookup[$OFObjectTable[$OFLookupGroup], k];
OFLookup[k : {__String}] :=
   
  Lookup[$OFObjectTable[$OFLookupGroup], k];
OFLookup[k : {__OFObject}] :=
   
  Lookup[$OFObjectTable[$OFLookupGroup], First /@ k];

That’s trivial, of course, so we move on to a property lookup:

OFLookup[
    keys : {__String}, p_,
    default_: Missing["KeyAbsent"]] :=
   MapThread[
     OFPostLookup,
     {
       OFRecursiveLookup[
         Lookup[$OFObjectTable[$OFLookupGroup], keys],
         p,
         default
         ],
       keys
       }
     ];

Note that the heart of this is really missing. We need the following two functions to truly know what’s up. One for vectorized recursive lookups:

OFRecursiveLookup[
    objs : {__Association},
    keys_,
    default_: $OFMissingKeyAbsent
    ] :=
   Module[{
      missingKey = Unique[$OFMissingKeyAbsent],
      types =
        Lookup[objs, "ObjectType", "Object"],
      typeroot = Lookup[$OFObjectTable["Types"], "Object", <||>]
      },
     types =
       Lookup[$OFObjectTable["Types"], types, typeroot];
     If[default === $OFMissingKeyAbsent,
        Map[
          If[ListQ@keys,
             MapThread[
               If[# === missingKey,
                  Missing["KeyAbsent", #2],
                  #
                  ] &,
               {
                 #,
                 keys
                 }
               ],
             If[# === missingKey,
               Missing["KeyAbsent", keys],
               #
               ]
             ] &
          ],
        Identity
        ]@
       Replace[
         OFrecursiveLookupStep[objs, types, keys, default, missingKey,
       typeroot],
         missingKey -> default,
         {2}
         ]
     ];
(*Recursive lookup step*)
OFrecursiveLookupStep[
    objs_,
    types_,
    keys_,
    default_,
    missing_,
    typeroot_
    ] :=
   Module[{
      props = Lookup[objs, keys, missing],
      missingpos,
      objnew,
      typenew
      },
     missingpos = First /@ Position[props, missing, {1}];
     objnew = DeleteCases[types[[missingpos]], typeroot];
     If[Length@objnew == 0,
       props,
       typenew =
         Lookup[
           $OFObjectTable["Types"],
           Lookup[objnew, "ObjectType", "Object"],
           typeroot
           ];
       ReplacePart[props,
         Thread[
           
      missingpos ->
             
       OFrecursiveLookupStep[objnew, typenew, keys, default, missing, 
        typeroot]
           ]
         ]
       ]
     ];

And one for post-processing our lookups:

OFPostLookup[e_OFMethod, id_] :=
   If[$OFPrepMethods // TrueQ,
     OFPrepMethod[e, id],
     e
     ];
OFPostLookup[l : _List, id_] :=
   OFPostLookup[#, id] & /@ l;
OFPostLookup[e : Except[_OFMethod | _List], id_] :=
   e;
(*Method binding*)

OFPrepMethod[OFMethod[f_, a_Association], id_String] :=
   With[{
      atts = Lookup[a, "Attributes", {HoldAllComplete}],
      autoEval = Lookup[a, "Evaluate", False],
      obj =
        Replace[
          Lookup[a, "PassFirst", OFObject@id], {
            OFType | "ObjectType" :>
              OFType@Lookup[id, "ObjectType", "Object"],
            None :>
              Sequence[]
           }]},
     If[autoEval,
       f[obj],
       Function[Null, f[obj, ##], atts]
       ]
     ];
OFPrepMethod[OFMethod[f_], id_String] :=
   With[{obj = OFObject@id},
     Function[Null, f[obj, ##], HoldAllComplete]
     ];

Where that OFPrepMethod is a function that will bind an OFMethod to an object instance via a pure Function

Now we see where that "ObjectType" comes in. OFRecursiveLookup will recurse through an object’s ancestors until it hits no more ancestors or it hits the property.

Application

All of our setting / getting will be defined in terms of object mutations. The basic idea is that we’ll define a single function, OFApply , which will get parts of an object, and apply a function to them. And then do this in a vectorized way. We can then define a function OFMutate on that that automatically calls Set on the result.

We’ll need, once again, a symbol to tell us whether we’re working with the "Objects" or "Types" which we’ll call $OFApplicationGroup . Then the heart of the function looks like this:

OFApply[k : {__String}, f_] :=
   
  With[{$OFApplicationGroup = $OFApplicationGroup},
     If[KeyMemberQ[$OFObjectTable[$OFApplicationGroup], #],
         f[
           $OFObjectTable[$OFApplicationGroup, #],
           HoldPattern[$OFObjectTable[$OFApplicationGroup, #]]
           ],
         Missing["KeyAbsent", #]
         ] & /@ k
     ];
OFApply[k : {__String}, p_, f_] :=
   
  With[{$OFApplicationGroup = $OFApplicationGroup},
     If[KeyMemberQ[$OFObjectTable[$OFApplicationGroup], #],
         f[
           OFLookup[#, p],
           HoldPattern[$OFObjectTable[$OFApplicationGroup, #, p]]
           ],
         Missing["KeyAbsent", #]
         ] & /@ k
     ];

Where we actually have two different cases. One where there’s no property to apply to, and one where there is. Branching it like this simplifies the definition process and lets us speed up each. Note that the actual group to be assigned to is passed in the second symbol, to make things easier in setting, etc.

Property Setting

We can then define a OFSet function and friends off of an OFApply call. In fact, the entire function is just this:

OFSet[k : objectPattern, p : Except[_List], v_] :=
   OFApply[k, p,
     Function[Null,
       Set[#2, v],
       HoldFirst
       ]
     ];

In fact, it’s just a Set delegate.

And then we can define a number of other such delegates, say for SetDelayed

OFSetDelayed[k : objectPattern, p_, v_] :=
   OFApply[k, p,
     Function[Null,
       SetDelayed[#2, v],
       HoldAllComplete
       ]
     ];
OFSetDelayed~SetAttributes~HoldAllComplete

Or a threaded Set (with a delayed companion):

OFSetThread[k : objectPattern, p_, v_] :=
   
  With[{base = Thread[p -> v]},
     OFApply[k,
       Function[Null,
         AssociateTo[Evaluate@Extract[#2, 1, Unevaluated], base],
         HoldAllComplete
         ]
       ];
     v
     ];

Or on a Part (again, with a delayed companion)

OFSetPart[k : objectPattern, key_, parts__, value_] :=
  
 OFApply[k, key,
    Function[Null,
      Replace[Unevaluated[#],
        HoldPattern[$OFObjectTable[p__]] :>
          
     Set[$OFObjectTable[[p, parts]], value]
        ],
      HoldAllComplete
      ]
    ]

And so forth.

Simplified Mutation Syntax

We can then take advantage of Language`SetMutationHandler to mutate these objects from a Symbol without going through an Evaluate or With call. First we define our handler (note that this is only a sample defintion):

OFObjectMutationHandler~SetAttributes~HoldAllComplete;
OFObjectMutationHandler[
    Set[t : sym_Symbol?OFTestObjectQ[base___, prop : Except[_List]], 
    newvalue_]
    ] :=
   With[{obj = sym[base]},
     If[OFObjectQ[obj],
       OFSet[obj, prop, newvalue]
       ]
     ];

And then we set it:

Language`SetMutationHandler[OFObject, OFObjectMutationHandler];

And with that we can easily mutate our object with calls of the form:

obj["prop"] = val

Other Bits and Pieces

A number of other interface functions are implemented, including AddTo , SubtractFrom , Join , Merge , Map etc.

Similarly, as is visible in the OFPostLookup function, there is a special head called OFMethod which binds to an object instance as a function and which can take an Association as its second argument, which allows it to be treated as a python property in terms of auto-calling.

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Types

Creating Types

As noted previously, we’re treating types as objects, so we’ll need a way to construct new types as well. Note, though, that this will is much simpler than making objects, as they need not be initialized and don’t need unique keys.

OFNewType[a : {__Association}] :=
   Catch@
    With[{
       names =
         Lookup[
           a,
           "ObjectTypeName"
           ]
       },
      If[! AllTrue[names, StringQ], Message[OFNewType::names, names]; 
     Throw@$Failed];
      AssociateTo[
        $OFObjectTable["Types"],
        Thread[names -> a]
        ]
      ];

And again we’ll provide some more convenient, non-vectorized syntax:

OFNewType[a_Association] :=
   First@OFNewType[{a}];
OFNewType[name_String, a : _Association : <||>] :=
  OFNewType[
    Append[a, "ObjectTypeName" -> name];
    ]

Type Instantiation

So we have an object creation syntax, but it’s worth having this be derivable from an OFType as well. The simplest constructor would be simply to attach SubValues to the OFType symbol:

OFType[type_][args___] :=
  OFNewObject[<|
     "ObjectType" -> type,
     "ObjectInitializationArguments" -> HoldComplete[args]
     |>]

The issue is that SubValues of course cannot have Attributes so we can’t hold the arguments, and we can’t vectorize this. So we’ll also build a more robust version, deviating from python syntax, using an OFNewObject call:

OFNewObject[types : {(Rule | RuleDelayed)[_OFType, _] ..}] :=
   
  OFNewObject[
     <|
         "ObjectType" ->
           #[[1, 1]],
         "ObjectInitializationArguments" ->
           Extract[
             #,
             2,
             Function[Null,
               
         Replace[HoldComplete[#], 
          HoldComplete[_[a___]] :> HoldComplete[a]],
               HoldAllComplete
               ]
             ]
         |> & /@ types
     ];
OFNewObject[
   types : {(Rule | RuleDelayed)[_OFType, _] | _OFType ..}] :=
   
  OFNewObject[
     Replace[types, t_OFType :> (OFType -> {}), 1]
     ];
OFNewObject[type : (Rule | RuleDelayed)[_OFType, _] | _OFType] :=
  
 First@OFNewObject[{type}]

This way arguments can easily be specified using RuleDelayed syntax to get holding, and it’s a clear, vectorizable syntax.

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Building a Type Constructor

Having to specify a type as an Association can be unwieldy, so we’ll build a package-like syntax for type definitions. The basic plan is to build and add to a construction stack until some end function is called, at which point it will unravel back out to a type.

The Construction Stack

This is a simple list to which pieces can be appended. We’ll instantiate it like so:

$OFConstructorStack = {};

Begin

We’ll then create a function like BeginPackage which will stick basic meta-information on the stack:

Options[OFBegin] = {
    "Type" -> "Object",
    "Construct" -> "Type",
    "Assign" -> None
    };
OFBegin[name : Except[_Rule | _RuleDelayed], 
   ops : OptionsPattern[]] :=
   AppendTo[$OFConstructorStack,
     <|
       "Name" ->
         Replace[name, None | Automatic :> CreateUUID["Type-"]],
       "Construct" ->
         Replace[OptionValue["Construct"], Except["Object"] -> "Type"],
       "Assign" ->
         OptionValue["Assign"],
       "Fields" ->
         <|
           "ObjectType" ->
             Replace[OptionValue["Type"],
               _?(Not@KeyMemberQ[$OFObjectTable["Types"], #] &) -> 
         "Object"
               ]
           |>,
       "Methods" ->
         <|
           |>
       |>
     ];
OFBegin~SetAttributes~HoldRest;

Stack Additions

Then we have a function for sticking data on the stack. First one for fields:

OFAddField[name_, value_] :=
   (
     AssociateTo[$OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Fields"]],
        name -> value
        ];
     );
OFAddFieldDelayed[name_, value_] :=
   (
     AssociateTo[$OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Fields"]],
        name :> value
        ];
     );

And one for methods:

OFAddMethod[nameProvided_, data : _Association : <||>] :=
   
  With[{name =
       Replace[nameProvided,
         s_String :>
           Replace[
             StringReplace[s, {
                "__" ~~ l : WordCharacter .. ~~ "__" :>
                  
           "Object" <> ToUpperCase@StringTake[l, 1] <> 
            StringDrop[l, 1],
                "__" ~~ l : WordCharacter .. :> PrivateKey[l]
                }],
             StringExpression[__, p_PrivateKey] :> p
             ]
         ]},
     If[KeyMemberQ[$OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods"]], name],
       $OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods", name, "Properties"]] =
         Join[
           $OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods", name, "Properties"]],
           data
           ],
       AssociateTo[$OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods"]],
         name ->
           <|
             
       "Symbol" -> OFMethodSymbol[name],
             "Properties" -> data
             |>
         ]
       ]
     ];

Note that this uses something called OFMethodSymbol which is defined like so:

OFMethodSymbol[name_, add : True | False : False] :=
   
  If[KeyMemberQ[$OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods"]], name],
     $OFConstructorStack[[-1, "Methods", name, "Symbol"]],
     If[add,
       OFAddMethod[name];
       OFMethodSymbol[name, False],
       Symbol[
         StringReplace[ToString[name], 
       Except[WordCharacter | "$"] -> ""] <>
           "$" <> 
      StringReplace[CreateUUID[], "-" -> ""]
         ]
       ]
     ];

Where it simply finds the symbol attached to a method on the stack. This will be more important later.

Method Construction

This constructor is more powerful if we provide a method construction aide or two, so we’ll do just that. First we’ll set up something to track what methods we build:

If[! MatchQ[$OFBuiltMethods, _Association],
   $OFBuiltMethods = <||>
   ];

And then a function that actually builds a method:

OFBuildMethod[f_, data_Association] :=
  With[{
     a = Lookup[data, "Attributes", {}],
     o = Lookup[data, "Options", {}]
     },
    If[MatchQ[f, _Symbol],
      Attributes[f] = a;
      Options[f] = o;
      ];
    OFMethod[f, KeyDrop[data, {"Attributes", "Options"}]]
    ]

End

Finally we’ll have a function that takes all that stack data and converts it into a type. It simply finds all of the properties, puts them into the Association that OFNewType expects, and sends it through.

OFEnd[] :=
   If[Length@$OFConstructorStack > 0,
     With[{a = Last@$OFConstructorStack},
       $OFConstructorStack = Delete[$OFConstructorStack, -1];
       With[{
          t = a["Construct"],
          s = a["Assign"],
          n = a["Name"],
          f = a["Fields"],
          m = OFBuildMethod[#Symbol, #Properties] & /@ a["Methods"]
          },
         $OFBuiltMethods =
           Join[$OFBuiltMethods,
             AssociationMap[Null &,
               Values@a[["Methods", All, "Symbol"]]
               ]
             ];
         With[{obj =
             If[t == "Type",
               OFNewType[n, Join[f, m, <|"ObjectTypeName" -> n|>]];
               OFType[n],
               OFNewObject[Join[f, m, <|"ObjectType" -> n|>]]
               ]
            },
           If[s =!= None, s = obj, s]
           ]
         ]
       ],
     None
     ];

Constructor UpValues

Generally we won’t want to use OFAddField or anything like that when we’re defining types. It’s just a little bit clumsy. Better, generally, is to define types in a similar style to how packages are built. What I mean is we’ll want some syntax like this:

OFBegin["TypeName"];
OFField["FieldName"] = val;
SetOptions[OFMethod["MethodName"], { ...}];
OFMethod["MethodName"][pats___] := code;
OFEnd[];

We can get set this up using UpValues . The actually UpValues used aren’t terribly interesting so we’ll leave them out here. You can look at the implementation package if you’re interested.

Magic Methods

One last thing we’ll want are aliases for some so-called “magic methods”—things like "ObjectInitialization" that the framework knows to look for and which define special hooks. At the moment there are three of these:

OFInit /:
   
  HoldPattern[(s : Set | SetDelayed)[OFInit[p___], code_]] :=
    
  s[OFMethod["ObjectInitialization"][p], code];
OFRepr /:
   
  HoldPattern[(s : Set | SetDelayed)[OFRepr[p___], code_]] :=
    
  s[OFMethod["ObjectRepresentation"][p], code];
OFStr /:
   
  HoldPattern[(s : Set | SetDelayed)[OFStr[p___], code_]] :=
    
  s[OFMethod["ObjectString"][p], code];

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An Object Framework Example

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Defining a Ball in a Box

We’ll do a quick, simple example, where we define a ball-in-a-box class and just watch a ball bounce around a box:

First we begin the class:

ballInABox := OFBegin["BallInABox"]

(*Out:*)

{<|"Name" -> "BallInABox", "Construct" -> "Type", 
  "Assign" -> HoldPattern[ballInABox], 
  "Fields" -> <|"ObjectType" -> "Object"|>, "Methods" -> <||>|>}

Add a default box and elasticity multiplier

OFField["Box"] = { {-5, 5}, {-5, 5} };
OFField["ElasticityMultiplier"] = 1;

Define a "Step" function

OFMethod["Step"][
   self_,
   time : _Quantity : Quantity[.1, "Seconds"],
   steps : _Integer?Positive : 1
   ] :=
  
 Module[{position, velocity, box, mulp, 
   timenum = QuantityMagnitude@UnitConvert[time, "Seconds"]}, 
    {position, velocity, box, mulp} =
      OFLookup[
    self, {"Position", "Velocity", "Box", "ElasticityMultiplier"}];
    (self[{"Postion", "Velocity"}] = {position, velocity}; #) &@
      Reap[
         Do[
           position += velocity*timenum;
           Which[
             position[[1]] < box[[1, 1]],
              position[[1]] = box[[1, 1]];
              velocity[[1]] = -mulp*velocity[[1]],
             position[[1]] > box[[1, 2]],
              position[[1]] = box[[1, 2]];
              velocity[[1]] = -mulp*velocity[[1]]
             ];
           Which[
             position[[2]] < box[[2, 1]],
              position[[2]] = box[[2, 1]];
              velocity[[2]] = -mulp*velocity[[2]],
             position[[2]] > box[[2, 2]],
              position[[2]] = box[[2, 2]];
              velocity[[2]] = -mulp*velocity[[2]]
             ];
           Sow@position,
           steps
           ]
         ][[2, 1]]
    ]

Then we end define the constructor:

OFInit[self_,
   position : {_?NumericQ, _?NumericQ} : {0, 0},
   velocity : {_?NumericQ, _?NumericQ} : {1, 1}
   ] :=
  
 OFSetThread[self, {"Position", "Velocity"}, {position, velocity}]

And let’s just peek at the stack:

$OFConstructorStack

(*Out:*)

{<|"Name" -> "BallInABox", "Construct" -> "Type", 
  "Assign" -> HoldPattern[ballInABox], 
  "Fields" -> <|"ObjectType" -> "Object", "Box" -> { {-5, 5}, {-5, 5} },
     "ElasticityMultiplier" -> 1|>, 
  "Methods" -> <|"Step" -> <|"Symbol" -> 
       Step$22f15d87fd684683a13e88d69f21dad4, "Properties" -> <||>|>, 
    "ObjectInitialization" -> <|"Symbol" -> 
       ObjectInitialization$4a5647db29784ae69d9b1f0dcd88cddb, 
      "Properties" -> <||>|>|>|>}

OFEnd[]

(*Out:*)

posts-a-fake-object-framework-5533752296471534441

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Playing with a ball-in-a-box

We’ll then just build one of these objects:

ball = ballInABox[RandomReal[{-5, 5}, 2], RandomReal[{-2.5, 2.5}, 2]]

(*Out:*)

posts-a-fake-object-framework-9116754826795747734

And make it step like 10 times

ball["Step"][10]

(*Out:*)

{ {3.08519, 
  0.0352382}, {3.21787, -0.0303612}, {3.35055, -0.0959607}, {3.48323, \
-0.16156}, {3.61591, -0.22716}, {3.74859, -0.292759}, {3.88127, \
-0.358359}, {4.01394, -0.423958}, {4.14662, -0.489558}, {4.2793, \
-0.555157} }

Check the ball’s position and velocity:

ball[{"Position", "Velocity"}]

(*Out:*)

{ {2.95251, 0.100838}, {1.32679, -0.655995} }

And view the ball bouncing:

With[{box = ball["Box"]},
  ListAnimate[
    Graphics[Point[#], PlotRange -> box] & /@ ball["Step"][100]
    ]
  ]

(*Out:*)

posts-a-fake-object-framework-3943164318078536356

Randomize the position and velocity and do it again, but faster

ball[{"Position", "Velocity"}] = {RandomReal[{-5, 5}, 2], 
   RandomReal[{-2.5, 2.5}, 2]};
With[{box = ball["Box"]},
  ListAnimate[
    Graphics[Point[#], PlotRange -> box] & /@ 
   ball["Step"][Quantity[2, "Seconds"], 100]
    ]
  ]

(*Out:*)

posts-a-fake-object-framework-6727523626926870660

This is a basic example of the sort of thing OOP brings to the table and, with enough work, it’s pretty fast and nice enough to work with.