heterarchy

heterarchy
==========

Cooperative multiple inheritance for CoffeeScript, à-la Python.

Adds multiple inheritance support to CoffeeScript (and JavaScript).
It uses the C3 linearization algorithm as described in the famous
Dylan paper.

Example
-------

The library handles multiple inheritance and chains calls to super
in a linear order, solving the diamond problem and allowing for
cooperative methods. For
example, the following class heterarchy:

Can be implemented with the following code.

``coffee
{multi} = require 'heterarchy'

class A
method: -> "A"

class B extends A
method: -> "B > #{super}"

class C extends A
method: -> "C > #{super}"

class D extends multi B, C
method: -> "D > #{super}"
`

Calling method on a D instance would return the string D > B > C > A`
showing the class linearization.

Documentation
-------------

$3

* [heterarchy][heterarchy]

GitHub: heterarchy.litcoffe

$3

* [spec.heterarchy][spec.heterarchy]

GitHub: heterarchy.spec.coffee

[heterarchy]: http://sinusoid.es/heterarchy/heterarchy.html
[spec.heterarchy]: http://sinusoid.es/heterarchy/test/heterarchy.spec.html

Installation
------------

This is a standard Node.JS module. One may
install the library with:

> npm install heterarchy

License
-------

Heterarchy is [Free Software][free-software] and is distributed
under the MIT license (see LICENSE).

[free-software]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

> Copyright (c) 2013, 2015 Juan Pedro Bolivar Puente
>
> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
> of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
> in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
> to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
> copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
> furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
>
> The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
> all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
>
> THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
> IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
> FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
> AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
> LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
> OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
> THE SOFTWARE.