Hi!
As a Java and Ruby programmer I sometimes find it hard to code Lisp. Right
now I'm working on a minor mode for which the structure would obvious for me
in Java or Ruby, but in Lisp is a riddle.
I will not describe the mode itself, but give a description of the problem.
Say I want to store a list of people in a file. And for each person, also
some information on them in the format:
name|age|married|sex
Each time I start the mode, that file should be parsed in to some
datastructure (which kind of is the problem). And on save, the file would be
updated. For me it's obvious to represent a person with a class:
class Person
var name, age, married, sex
methods...
end
Then I could easy update attributes on the objects, remove and add people
and then update the file.
I tried with a couple of solutions for this in Lisp:
1) One list named people:
(
(name age married sex)
...
)
2) Multiple lists named name, age, married and sex where the index decides
the connection between the lists:
(name1 name2)
(age1 age2)
(married1 married2)
(sex1 sex2)
3) Same as two, but with arrays:
[name1 name2]
[age1 age2]
[married1 married2]
[sex1 sex2]
Each way above has their disadvantages and I think none of them is good
enough. I read something about object orientation in lisp, but I have never
seen this be used in Emacs. So my question is basically: What is the best
way to model something in lisp, that you in an object oriented language
would model with a class.
Thanks!