Skip to content

ask class surface

Alexander Liberov edited this page Oct 5, 2026 · 1 revision

ask: class-surface

What a type exposes, by visibility. One of the diagram questions of the ask verb -- see Diagrams and Charts for the model, the bundle and click-to-source.

Asking it

Planned engine verb -- drag-lint ask is not shipped yet. Today ask this question with the chart pipeline command below, or with Ask-Report.ps1 (see Charts and the IDE).

From RAD Studio: drag-lint > Reports > What this type exposes (class surface)... -- put the caret on the selection first (see IDE Menu Reference).

drag-lint ask --question class-surface --at <file.pas>:<line>:<col> --db <project.sqlite>

The selection is the symbol under --at (resolved exactly as Type at Cursor resolves a caret). Today, ask it by name through the chart pipeline:

New-DiagramArtifact.ps1 -Question class-surface -Target MyApp.Orders.TOrder -DbPath <project.sqlite>

You select

A class, record or interface.

The chart shows

The type's members grouped into one cluster per visibility (published, public, protected, private), each row a field, property, method, constructor or destructor with its signature.

It stands on

The type's child symbols in the index -- structured signatures, not the text slice surface prints.

Parameters

Rows per visibility cluster (default 12), disclosed as "+N more".

Read it carefully

A form class's published component fields can dominate; the cap keeps the picture readable, and the hidden count is always shown.

Clone this wiki locally