Representing dynamic typing in C

Question

I\'m writing a dynamically-typed language. Currently, my objects are represented in this way:

struct Class { struct Class* class; struct Object* (*get)(stru         


        

Answer 1

See Python PEP 3123 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3123/) for how Python solves this problem using standard C. The Python solution can be directly applied to your problem. Essentially you want to do this:

struct Object { struct Class* class; };
struct Integer { struct Object object; int value; };
struct String { struct Object object; size_t length; char* characters; };

You can safely cast Integer* to Object*, and Object* to Integer* if you know that your object is an integer.