This is shobject. It implements a prototypical object system for your shell scripting needs.

Objects are represented by directories. Methods are just executable files contained within an object. Properties can be implemented with a file within an object and a method to handle reading and writing them (or even as a method which modifies itself to contain the new value. An object can currently only have one prototype, which is contained as a symlink(typically) named ".prototype" to another object within the object.

It is planned to implement a system for access control of properties using standard POSIX access control mechanisms: just remove write permission from a property to make it readonly.

Currently, objects are "allocated" as temporary directories in /tmp, and are never deallocated (although reboots generally do clean out /tmp). A better system needs to be figured out. Possibly something involving reference counting with periodic checks for objects without any refcounts. How to deal with situations where such a sweep catches an object that has been created but hasn't yet had ref called on it is an open question.

There is also support for referring to certain library objects using a abbreviated name. If an object name is not found as an existing directory, "$SHOBJECT_LIBDIR"/"$object_name" will be used as the object, if found. It is recommended to set SHOBJECT_LIBDIR to the lib directory in the shobject installation.

Examples:

$ point=$(./object Object new)
$ ./object "$point" addProperty x
$ ./object "$point" addProperty y
$ origin=$(./object "$point" new)
$ ./object "$origin" x = 0
$ ./object "$origin" y = 0
$ ./object "$origin" x
0
$ ./object "$origin" y
0