Methods

A method is a named operation on a Type. Invoke it with the ^ (“run”) affix. Bare .method without ^ is an error.

Operands and results use DS. The receiver stays on the context stack for rooted calls.

Instance methods

List.new^ >ts
10 t:.append^
20 t:.append^
t:.len@ $ nl      // 2
t:.clear^
t:drop

StringBuilder.new^ >ts
"hi" t:.writeString^
t:.toString^ $ nl    // hi
t:drop

Class methods

Class methods run with the Type as receiver. Factories are the common case:

List.new^                         // ( -- list )
16 List.newWithCapacity^          // ( cap:i -- list )
5 List.newWithLen^                // ( len:i -- list )

Other class methods query or compute without an instance handle:

Float.NaN Float.isNaN^ $ nl    // true
2 10 Float.pow^ $ nl           // 1024.0

For string→number conversion, use the cast operators from the Quick Tour ("42" >>Int?), not a Type method.

Final methods (TypedObject)

Methods written in Final are defined on a TypedObject type (see TypedObject) with : Type#name … ; (instance) or : Type##name … ; (class). Registration happens at ; — no dict word is left behind. While the method runs, the receiver is on the Object Stack. Use the o: prefix; you may not push or drop OS yourself; the runtime takes care of pushing the instance prior to invoking the method, and then dropping it when the method returns.

: Person#describe
  o:.name@
  o:.age@
  "%s (%d)" fmt
;

Person.new^ >ts
"Ada" t:.name!
36 t:.age!
t:.describe^ $ nl    // Ada (36)
t:drop

Nested o:.… paths behave like any other rooted compound path for the duration of the call.