Does pascal have reflection?

[slenkar]

I like to use reflection to make save game files with serialization. does this exist for pascal?

[JSoftware]

In a way it does. You have RTTI for published properties of persistent objects(classes inheriting from TPersistent). Normal component streaming with the TStream makes serialization possible, but it's somewhat rigid. It'll do a lot, but not everything, and you have to be very careful about your design

So in conclusion; I wouldn't use it for anything complicated

[slenkar]

thanks I found this http://wiki.freepascal.org/tiOPF
I may try to save objects in CSV format

If I had a Type called Car and some other types that extend it e.g. (ford ,honda,chevy)

could I use RTTI to get the names of the types(ford, honda etc.)
then create buttons with the names

then when the user clicks on a button use RTTI to create an instance of the selected car (ford, honda)?

[Brainer]

If I had a Type called Car and some other types that extend it e.g. (ford ,honda,chevy)

could I use RTTI to get the names of the types(ford, honda etc.)

Yes.

type
  Car = class(TObject)
  end;

  Honda = class(Car)
  end;

var
  HondaCar: Honda;
begin
  HondaCar := Honda.Create();
  try
    ShowMessage(HondaCar.ClassName); 
  finally
    FreeAndNil(HondaCar);
  end;
end;

[slenkar]

thanks, could i get a list of all the types that extend car?

I want to put a menu on the screen to let the player choose a car to drive

then when the player chooses a car, could i use the text (e.g. Ford, Honda) to create an instance of that type of car?

[slenkar]

can I create an object with a text string of its name?

if not, could i have a little example program of turning an object into a stream and vice-versa?