Object composition and property updating

I'm struggling with an implementation of Matlab's OOP and object composition. For simplicity I'll use a car example. Im constructing a of series classes. One is a kind of Master class (like a car) and a series of other classes, (tire, window, door, etc). When I give the car properties using said objects, I'm having trouble updating the properties of the car parts. If for example a property of the car changes AND that change affects its tire property class how should this be handled?

I'm assuming I need use listeners but am concerned it may be overkill for what I am trying to achieve. However I can't wrap my head around this if things get more and more intertwined- Ex: a tire now has a hubcap property that is an object and its color property is dependent on the color of the car and so on and so on.

Any help with this is appreciated and I can provide clarification if necessary but I'm hoping someone will recognize either the flaw in my construction or what approach best handles this. Thanks!

%define a car

classdef car < handle

properties 
tire
door
window
paintcolorOfCar
end

%In another file Define a tire
classdef tire < handle

properties 
carAttachedTo % I'm setting this property to the car object 
              %but think that may be a badthing
tireColor
end
methods
function colorout = get.tireColor(obj)
colorout = obj.carAttachedTo.paintcolorOfCar ;
end

Answer 1

[Jacob Halbrooks]

You should think about whether the tire needs to be exposed as a public property on the car, or whether it can be private. In any case, one approach for your problem is to use SET methods for properties. An example is below, where the car has a public color, which when set updates the car's bodyColor and its tire's paintColor.

 classdef Car < handle

    properties(Dependent)
        color;
    end

    properties(Access = private)
        tire;
        bodyColor;
    end

    methods        
        function set.color(this, v)
            this.bodyColor = v;
            this.tire.paintColor = v;
        end

        function v = get.color(this)
            v = this.bodyColor;
        end

        function obj = Car
            obj.tire = Tire;
            obj.color = 'black';
        end
    end
 end

 classdef Tire < handle
    properties
        paintColor = 'black'; 
    end
 end

Using that approach, the tire doesn't even need to know what car it is attached to. Now if it is the case that you need to have the tire exist separately from the car, another approach would be to have the tire's color dependent upon the car it is attached to:

 classdef Car < handle

    properties(Dependent)
        color;
    end

    properties(Access = private)
        tire;
        bodyColor;
    end

    methods        
        function set.color(this, v)
            this.bodyColor = v;
        end

        function v = get.color(this)
            v = this.bodyColor;
        end

        function obj = Car(aTire)
            obj.tire = aTire;
            obj.tire.car = obj;
            obj.color = 'black';
        end
    end
 end

 classdef Tire < handle

    properties
        car;
    end

    properties(Dependent, SetAccess = private)
        paintColor = 'black'; 
    end

    methods
        function v = get.paintColor(this)
            v = this.car.color;
        end
    end
 end

[Jarrod Rivituso]

I like your use of the dependent properties :) +1 from me!

[gareth]

The latter approach I believe addresses what I am trying to do. Thank you for the detailed response! I am going to try and implement it though before I accept the response incase anything else pops up.

Answer 2

[Jarrod Rivituso]

I think the way that I would do this is to set the actual properties to be private

properties (SetAccess=private,GetAccess=public)
  paintedColorOfCar
end

and then, provide a "set" method that allows external code to modify it.

methods
  function setColorOfCar(obj,inputColor)
    obj.paintedColorOfCar = inputColor;
    %<do any other color-change related tasks
  end
end

Then, in the tire class, you could force the user to use the set method in the Car class

t = Tire;
t.carAttachedTo.setColorOfCar('blue');

Also, if your Tire class must have a color property of its own, and it is truly derived from the Car's color, then just provide a get method in the tire class that calculates it

methods
  function out = getColorOfTire(obj)
    out = obj.carAttachedTo.paintedColorOfCar;
  end
end

The benefits of what I've outlined are that it provides one place (the Car) where the color property is stored, and the various other objects provide helpful methods to either modify or interpret that value.

You could also use listeners, but I agree with you that it might not be worth the effort.

[gareth]

Although I did accept the other answer, I do appreciate your detailed response, which I believe may help me in some other situations! Cheers.