SCATMECH > Classes and Functions > Utility > Inheritance

class Inheritance

The SCATMECH library makes heavy use of class inheritance. In order to aid run-time creation of instances of these classes, it is helpful to have a database of all the child classes for any parent class. The class Inheritance enables such a database of the inheritance structure of a class. Thus, each class which is part of an inheritance structure has a static data member

static Inheritance inheritance;

and a virtual member function

virtual Model* clone() const;

This static member contains pointers to all of the class' children. A macro Get_Model(_Model) creates a menu, from which a user can chose a child class of Model, and returns a pointer to a _Model. Another macro Get_Named_Model(_Model,name) returns a _Model named name.

Include file:

#include "inherit.h"

Source code:

inherit.cpp

See also:

SCATMECH Home,  BRDF_Model,  SphericalScatterer,  PSD_Function,  Slope_Distribution_Function,  Shadow_Function,  Phase_Function

Definition of public elements:

class Inheritance {
    Inheritance(const string& name,const string& description);
    string get_name();
    string get_description();
    Model* get_model();
    Model* get_named_model(const string& name);

    bool is_virtual() const;
    bool is_instantiable() const;

    const Inheritance* get_named_inheritance(const std::string& model) const;
    const InheritanceList& get_children() const;
    const Inheritance* get_parent_inheritance() const;
    void get_parameters(ModelParameterList& result,bool top=true) const;
    const ModelParameterBase* get_modelparameter(const std::string& param) const;
    Model* make() const;
    Model* clone(const Model& m) const;

    void Register_Model();
};

#define Get_Model(_Model)            _Model::inheritance.Get_Model()
#define Get_Named_Model(_Model,name) _Model::inheritance.Get_Named_Model(name)
#define Register_Model(_Model)       _Model::inheritance.Register_Model()

void Register_SCATMECH_Models();

Inheritance(const string& name,const string& description)

The class constructor takes two arguments of type string, one which gives the model's name and the other the model's description.

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string get_name()
string get_description()

These functions returns strings with the name of the class or its description.

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Model* get_model()
macro Get_Model(_Model)

This function and macro return a pointer to a new instantiation of Model. They present the user with a menu with all registered classes inheriting Model and will prompt the user for model parameters.

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Model* get_named_model(const string& name)
macro Get_Named_Model(_Model,const string& name)

This function and macro return a pointer to a new instantiation of Model. They return a pointer to a Model whose name matches name and does not prompt the user for model parameters.

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void Register_Model()
macro Register_Model(_Model)
void Register_SCATMECH_Models()

The first of these functions registers the existence of this Model with its Parent. The second of these functions registers all models in the SCATMECH library with their parents.

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Current SCATMECH version: 7.22 (April 2021)