Hacking around with the crazy idea of object oriented in bash because I can

gistfile1.sh

#!/bin/bash

# @cwgem (Chris White)
# Screwing around with the concept of objects in bash
# Not POSIX compliant and as with many bash scripts a huge hack ;)

# Hold "object properties" in a global associative array
# So far this means basically static objects with no instances
declare -A _Person

# The object is just a function in the end
Person() {
  # Which takes a method as an argument
  local method=$1
  local this=${FUNCNAME}

  # global scope can't see it wohoo
  SetProperty() {
    _Person[$1]=$2;
  }

  # A setter method
  Person.SetName() {
    SetProperty first_name $1
    SetProperty last_name $2
  }

  # And a standard method
  Person.SayName() {
    # Grab "class properties" from the global array to ensure state
    echo "Hello ${_Person[first_name]} ${_Person[last_name]}"
  }

  # FUNCNAME is set by bash to be the name of the
  # function, person and we just latch on a period
  # to indicate the "method". Then we pass all other
  # arguments after the method name to the method
  "${this}.${method}" ${@:2:$#}
}

# Sending an "object" a "message" type of call style
Person SetName "Chris" "White"
Person SayName