Another well-thought out actionscript feature: varags!

In java, if you override a varargs method you can easily call super, you just
have to do a wee cast:

    @Override
    public Stuff getStuff (int thing, Object... args)
    {
        return super.getStuff(thing, (Object[]) args);
    }

In abjectscript:

    override public function getStuff (thing :int, ... args) :Stuff
    {
        // This doesn't work, because now 'args' to super is an array
        // containing OUR args array as its first element.
        return super.getStuff(thing, args);

        // We can fix things for super by 'apply'ing the function to
        // all the args in one array...
        args.unshift(thing);
        return super.apply(this, args);

        // But it could also be the case that someone is intentionally
        // passing an array to this method (many flash library methods take
        // varargs but also accept arrays and do this same thing).
        if (args.length == 1 && (args[0] is Array)) {
            args = (args[0] as Array);
        }
        return super.getStuff(thing, args); // super must ALSO do the unjimmying

        // OR, we could combine the two so that super doesn't have to
        // do unjimmying.
    }

As a note, there is an 'arguments' object that is secretly placed in every
function call, presumably so that callers can test whether an arg is
the default value because the user didn't pass it in or whether it's
the default because the user happened to pass in the default.
Guess yourself, because that doesn't seem worth adding as a language feature.
Anyway, the 'arguments' is not an array! You can't use it to call super
via 'apply'. It's another associative hash. God bless you actionscript,
you just make so much fucking sense.

So I made a utility method for unfucking vargs.

I bitch a lot, yes, but my bitching takes only a fraction of the time
that was wasted discovering whatever it is I'm bitching about
(this was fun to trace backwards to the source, oh yes), and maybe I
can save others some time as a result.


git-svn-id: svn+ssh://src.earth.threerings.net/narya/trunk@4477 542714f4-19e9-0310-aa3c-eee0fc999fb1

src/as/com/threerings/util/MessageBundle.as

@@ -157,6 +157,8 @@ public class MessageBundle
             return key.substring(1);
         }
 
+        args = Util.unfuckVarargs(args);
+
         // if this is a qualified key, we need to pass the buck to the
         // appropriate message bundle
         if (key.indexOf(QUAL_PREFIX) == 0) {
@@ -263,6 +265,8 @@ public class MessageBundle
      */
     public static function compose (key :String, ... args) :String
     {
+        args = Util.unfuckVarargs(args);
+
         var buf :StringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
         buf.append(key, "|");
         for (var ii :int = 0; ii < args.length; ii++) {
@@ -291,6 +295,8 @@ public class MessageBundle
      */
     public static function tcompose (key :String, ... args) :String
     {
+        args = Util.unfuckVarargs(args);
+
         for (var ii :int = 0; ii < args.length; ii++) {
             args[ii] = taint(args[ii]);
         }

src/as/com/threerings/util/StringUtil.as

@@ -96,7 +96,10 @@ public class StringUtil
      */
     public static function substitute (str :String, ... args) :String
     {
-        return mx.utils.StringUtil.substitute(str, args);
+        // holy christ the varargs insanity
+        args = Util.unfuckVarargs(args);
+        args.unshift(str);
+        return mx.utils.StringUtil.substitute.apply(null, args);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -107,6 +110,23 @@ public class StringUtil
         return mx.utils.StringUtil.trim(str);
     }
 
+    public static function toString (obj :Object) :String
+    {
+        if (obj is Array) {
+            var arr :Array = (obj as Array);
+            var s :String = "Array(";
+            for (var ii :int = 0; ii < arr.length; ii++) {
+                if (ii > 0) {
+                    s += ", ";
+                }
+                s += (ii + ": " + toString(arr[ii]));
+            }
+            return s + ")";
+        }
+
+        return String(obj);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Truncate the specified String if it is longer than maxLength.
      * The string will be truncated at a position such that it is

src/as/com/threerings/util/Util.as

@@ -52,6 +52,16 @@ public class Util
         return false;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * If you call a varargs method by passing it an array, the array
+     * will end up being arg 1.
+     */
+    public static function unfuckVarargs (args :Array) :Array
+    {
+        return (args.length == 1 && (args[0] is Array)) ? (args[0] as Array)
+                                                        : args;
+    }
+
     public static function cast (obj :Object, clazz :Class) :Object
     {
         if (obj == null || obj is clazz) {