[Tutor] creating read only attributes

[Thomi Richards]

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Hi guys,


I've been looking at some Delphi recently, and you can create read only 
attributes, which behave like variables. consider the following code:

type TTest = class
	private
		testvar = integer;
	public
		property Test: integer read testvar;
		constructor Create;
	end;


Now, while I *hate* Delphi code with a vengeance, this is pretty cool; I can 
not do something like this:

t := TTest.Create;
writeln(t.Test);

i.e.- the "Test" property looks and behaves exactly like a normal variable, 
except that it is read-only in this case.

The property can even be the result of a function, like so:


type TTest = class
	private
		function test: integer;
	public
		property Test: integer read test;
		constructor Create;
	end;

And it is still used like 'Test" as a normal variable. This has the obvious 
advantage of being able to change the code within a class, without having to 
change external code which implements these features. (does that make sense)?

I'm sure there's a way to do this in python, but I haven't found it yet.

A common usage I've seen is having method names like "set_text" and 
"get_text", but these still behave like functions. You cannot do something 
like this:

t.set_text = 123.456

well, you could, but it wouldn't do what you expected....

Can someone please point me in the right direction? what's the magic keyword 
I'm missing?


Thanks in advance ;)

- -- 
Thomi Richards,
http://once.sourceforge.net/


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