How to Programmatically Remove "Singleton Information" on an Instance to Make It Marshal

How to programmatically remove singleton information on an instance to make it marshal?

You can define custom marshal_dump and marshal_load methods:

class X
  def break_marshalling!
    meta_class = class << self
      self 
    end
    meta_class.send(:define_method, :method_y) do 
      return 
    end
  end

  # This should return an array of instance variables
  # needed to correctly restore any X instance. Assuming none is needed
  def marshal_dump
    []
  end

  # This should define instance variables
  # needed to correctly restore any X instance. Assuming none is needed
  def marshal_load(_)
    []
  end
end

# Works fine
restored_instance_of_x = 
  Marshal.load Marshal.dump(X.new.tap { |x| x.break_marshalling! })

# Does not work
restored_instance_of_x.method_y

If you want you can manage dynamic methods definitions via method_missing:

class X
  def method_missing(name, *args)
    if name == :method_y
      break_marshalling!
      public_send name, *args
    else
      super
    end
  end
end

# Works fine
Marshal.load(Marshal.dump(X.new)).method_y

What is the correct way to create a single-instance WPF application?

Here is a very good article regarding the Mutex solution. The approach described by the article is advantageous for two reasons.

First, it does not require a dependency on the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly. If my project already had a dependency on that assembly, I would probably advocate using the approach shown in another answer. But as it is, I do not use the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly, and I'd rather not add an unnecessary dependency to my project.

Second, the article shows how to bring the existing instance of the application to the foreground when the user tries to start another instance. That's a very nice touch that the other Mutex solutions described here do not address.

UPDATE

As of 8/1/2014, the article I linked to above is still active, but the blog hasn't been updated in a while. That makes me worry that eventually it might disappear, and with it, the advocated solution. I'm reproducing the content of the article here for posterity. The words belong solely to the blog owner at Sanity Free Coding.

Today I wanted to refactor some code that prohibited my application
from running multiple instances of itself.

Previously I had use System.Diagnostics.Process to search for an
instance of my myapp.exe in the process list. While this works, it
brings on a lot of overhead, and I wanted something cleaner.

Knowing that I could use a mutex for this (but never having done it
before) I set out to cut down my code and simplify my life.

In the class of my application main I created a static named Mutex:

static class Program
{
    static Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, "{8F6F0AC4-B9A1-45fd-A8CF-72F04E6BDE8F}");
    [STAThread]
    ...
}

Having a named mutex allows us to stack synchronization across
multiple threads and processes which is just the magic I'm looking
for.

Mutex.WaitOne has an overload that specifies an amount of time for us
to wait. Since we're not actually wanting to synchronizing our code
(more just check if it is currently in use) we use the overload with
two parameters: Mutex.WaitOne(Timespan timeout, bool exitContext).
Wait one returns true if it is able to enter, and false if it wasn't.
In this case, we don't want to wait at all; If our mutex is being
used, skip it, and move on, so we pass in TimeSpan.Zero (wait 0
milliseconds), and set the exitContext to true so we can exit the
synchronization context before we try to aquire a lock on it. Using
this, we wrap our Application.Run code inside something like this:

static class Program
{
    static Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, "{8F6F0AC4-B9A1-45fd-A8CF-72F04E6BDE8F}");
    [STAThread]
    static void Main() {
        if(mutex.WaitOne(TimeSpan.Zero, true)) {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            Application.Run(new Form1());
            mutex.ReleaseMutex();
        } else {
            MessageBox.Show("only one instance at a time");
        }
    }
}

So, if our app is running, WaitOne will return false, and we'll get a
message box.

Instead of showing a message box, I opted to utilize a little Win32 to
notify my running instance that someone forgot that it was already
running (by bringing itself to the top of all the other windows). To
achieve this I used PostMessage to broadcast a custom message to every
window (the custom message was registered with RegisterWindowMessage
by my running application, which means only my application knows what
it is) then my second instance exits. The running application instance
would receive that notification and process it. In order to do that, I
overrode WndProc in my main form and listened for my custom
notification. When I received that notification I set the form's
TopMost property to true to bring it up on top.

Here is what I ended up with:

Program.cs

static class Program
{
    static Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, "{8F6F0AC4-B9A1-45fd-A8CF-72F04E6BDE8F}");
    [STAThread]
    static void Main() {
        if(mutex.WaitOne(TimeSpan.Zero, true)) {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            Application.Run(new Form1());
            mutex.ReleaseMutex();
        } else {
            // send our Win32 message to make the currently running instance
            // jump on top of all the other windows
            NativeMethods.PostMessage(
                (IntPtr)NativeMethods.HWND_BROADCAST,
                NativeMethods.WM_SHOWME,
                IntPtr.Zero,
                IntPtr.Zero);
        }
    }
}

NativeMethods.cs

// this class just wraps some Win32 stuff that we're going to use
internal class NativeMethods
{
    public const int HWND_BROADCAST = 0xffff;
    public static readonly int WM_SHOWME = RegisterWindowMessage("WM_SHOWME");
    [DllImport("user32")]
    public static extern bool PostMessage(IntPtr hwnd, int msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam);
    [DllImport("user32")]
    public static extern int RegisterWindowMessage(string message);
}

Form1.cs (front side partial)

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {
        if(m.Msg == NativeMethods.WM_SHOWME) {
            ShowMe();
        }
        base.WndProc(ref m);
    }
    private void ShowMe()
    {
        if(WindowState == FormWindowState.Minimized) {
            WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
        }
        // get our current "TopMost" value (ours will always be false though)
        bool top = TopMost;
        // make our form jump to the top of everything
        TopMost = true;
        // set it back to whatever it was
        TopMost = top;
    }
}

Smalltalk binding

Most of the tracers, profilers and samplers monitorize the execution of a system. If you want to develop a tracer which actually modifies the system you have to know very well its dynamics to avoid collateral effects.

This is the basic formula for tracers:

You will wrap anObjectA with Tracer (anObjectB)
Create a Tracer class with "object" instance variable (most of
Tracers subclass from nil or so)
Implement #initialize in Tracer's class side removing the superclass
pointer (superclass := nil)
Implement #on: anObjectA in Tracer's class side for storing anObjectA
in the Tracer's object i.v.

Implement #doesNotUnderstand: aMessage in Tracer's instance side, like this template:

doesNotUnderstand: aMessage
"trace the selector then pass the message on"

| result |
aMessage arguments size = 0
  ifTrue:
    [result := object perform: aMessage selector]
  ifFalse:
    [result := object perform: aMessage selector withArguments: aMessage arguments].
^result

in your case before the #perform: send you might access the ObjectA method dictionary and replace the "aMessage" CompiledMethod with another one. To access the method dictionary of a class just sent #methodDictionary or #>> in some Smalltalks.

You may put a new compiled method or even replace the whole dictionary in you know how to do reflection:

| methodDictionary |
methodDictionary := MethodDictionary new.
methodDictionary at: #basicNew put: (Object compilerClass new
                                compile: 'basicNew ^Point basicNew'
                                in: Object
                                notifying: nil
                                ifFail: []) generate.

Note you don't need a method to reside in a MethodDictionary to be evaluated. See senders of #valueWithReceiver:arguments:

Finally you make sends to your new object

anObjectA := MyTracer on: ObjectA new.
anObjectA example1.

and yes, you could put that in the ObjectA's new method too. You better read some chapters on Reflection in Smalltalk, there are a lot of contents in the web as Smalltalk is the best platform for doing computational reflection.

array dependency injection in spring?

Your example should work fine, as should List<IDataCollector>. Did you give it a try before asking, and found it didn't work?

https://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/core.html#beans-autowired-annotation

It is also possible to provide all
beans of a particular type from the
ApplicationContext by adding the
annotation to a field or method that
expects an array of that type.

Global keyboard capture in C# application

Stephen Toub wrote a great article on implementing global keyboard hooks in C#:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

class InterceptKeys
{
    private const int WH_KEYBOARD_LL = 13;
    private const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100;
    private static LowLevelKeyboardProc _proc = HookCallback;
    private static IntPtr _hookID = IntPtr.Zero;

    public static void Main()
    {
        _hookID = SetHook(_proc);
        Application.Run();
        UnhookWindowsHookEx(_hookID);
    }

    private static IntPtr SetHook(LowLevelKeyboardProc proc)
    {
        using (Process curProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
        using (ProcessModule curModule = curProcess.MainModule)
        {
            return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, proc,
                GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);
        }
    }

    private delegate IntPtr LowLevelKeyboardProc(
        int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    private static IntPtr HookCallback(
        int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
    {
        if (nCode >= 0 && wParam == (IntPtr)WM_KEYDOWN)
        {
            int vkCode = Marshal.ReadInt32(lParam);
            Console.WriteLine((Keys)vkCode);
        }
        return CallNextHookEx(_hookID, nCode, wParam, lParam);
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook,
        LowLevelKeyboardProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode,
        IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);
}

Deleting a temporary directory

Make sure that neither your program nor any other program have the directory as their current working directory. When you recompile the program this may no longer be the case, so it may be a red herring that the hardcoded value works for you.

How to load JAR files dynamically at Runtime?

The reason it's hard is security. Classloaders are meant to be immutable; you shouldn't be able to willy-nilly add classes to it at runtime. I'm actually very surprised that works with the system classloader. Here's how you do it making your own child classloader:

URLClassLoader child = new URLClassLoader(
        new URL[] {myJar.toURI().toURL()},
        this.getClass().getClassLoader()
);
Class classToLoad = Class.forName("com.MyClass", true, child);
Method method = classToLoad.getDeclaredMethod("myMethod");
Object instance = classToLoad.newInstance();
Object result = method.invoke(instance);

Painful, but there it is.

How to Programmatically Remove "Singleton Information" on an Instance to Make It Marshal