Documentation Set for Swarm 2.2
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# Probe

## Name

Probe -- An abstract superclass of both VarProbe and MessageProbe.

## Description

A Probe is simply an object that contains pointers to an element (instance variable or message description) of another object. The Probe contains instance variables that describe the referent's class and type. It's actually an abstract class that is further subdivided into VarProbe and MessageProbe, which represent the two basic types of elements of any object. The Probes are collected into a ProbeMap and subsequently installed in the ProbeLibrary.

## Protocols adopted by Probe

SwarmObject ProbeConfig

## Methods

### Phase: Creating

- - setProbedObject: object

- - setProbedClass: (Class)class
  The setProbedClass: method sets the class of the object the probe points at and must be called at create time.

### Phase: Setting

- - unsetSafety
  The unsetSafety method turns off the option of checking the compatibility of the class of the object before any actions are performed on the object.

- - setSafety
  The setSafety method turns on the option of checking the compatibility of the class of the object before any actions are performed on the object.

### Phase: Using

- - (const char *)getProbedType
  The getProbedType method returns the typing of the probed variable or message. The typing is represented using the string-format provided by the Objective-C runtime system.

- - (Class)getProbedClass
  The getProbedClass method returns the class of the object the probe points at as a Class pointer.

- - clone: (id <Zone>)aZone
  The clone: method returns a clone of the probe. If the initial probe was created by Library Generation or by the default version of Object generation, the probe should be cloned prior to making changes to it to avoid having the changes affect the other potential users of the probe.

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