Re: params to __tostring

[Wesley Smith <wesley.hoke@...>]

> To print an array, object, whatever... in "tree view" with indentation, we
> need to pass a nesting/indent level, and also the set of previously visited
> tables to avoid inf recursion. If the function performing tostring for each
> type accepts these parameters and deals with them, but __tostring does not
> forward them, then we need to check the type of each sub-item to explicitely
> call this function, instead of relying on the magic __tostring mechanism.

For the indent level, can't you just have every node tostring() itself
as normal and then have the parent add an indent?  That way the indent
would accumulate and you wouldn't need any extra parameters:

function __tostring(t)
   local res = {}
   for i=1, #t do
    res[i] = '\t'..tostring(t[i])
   end
   return table.concat(res, "\n")
end