Types

TOM has three kinds of types: basic types, objects and tuples. Furthermore, there is one special type, void, and there are two special type indications: dynamic indicates that the actual type will be dynamically checked; and id which, in denotes an actual object instead of the containing declaring object.

Syntax

entity_type:
          basic_type
        | tuple_type
        | object_type
        ;

An entity_type is the possible type of an entity, such as an object variable, method argument or local variable.

argument_type:
          `dynamic'
        | entity_type
        ;

In addition to the usual types, an argument can have the dynamic type. The type actually passed will be encoded in the selector of the method being invoked. It is the responsibility of that method to retrieve the correct types as indicated by the selector (see section Selectors).

return_type:
          `void'
        | argument_type
        ;

The type of value returned by a method can be anything that can be the type of an argument, plus void, indicating that the method will not return any value.

• Basic types: foundation
• The void type: nothingness
• The dynamic type
• Object type: building blocks
• The id type: the actual receiver type
• Tuple types: packing things together

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