isSimSet(), isSimGroup(), etc

[preamble]
this is a very minor resource, but one i find handy.
in Torque, classes are derived from other classes.
eg, AIPlayer derives from Player, GuiControl derives from SimGroup, which derives from SimSet, etc.

so an AIPlayer is also a Player.

in script i sometimes would like to know if an object is of class player, or of any class derived from player.

thanks to typing, this isn't a problem in C++, but script is typeless so it's a bit of an issue.

i could do something like this:
if (%obj.getClassName() $= "Player" || %obj.getClassName() $= "AIPlayer"), but that's a pain in the butt and breaks as soon as i derive another class from Player.
[/preamble]

The following code is dirty, but it works, is efficient, and gets the job done.
I'd love to hear any C++ / torqueScript guru advice around how to generalize it further.

The approach is to create a virtual function along the lines of "IsClassFoo()" right down in SimObject, for which simObject always returns false, and then override the function to return true in the derived classes of interest.

SimBase.h
somewhere in the class definition for SimObject, for example right above "DECLARE_CONOBJECT(SimObject)

//-------------------- Debug Utilities ----------------------------
   public:
   virtual bool       isClassAIPlayer() { return false; }
   virtual bool       isClassPlayer  () { return false; }
   virtual bool       isClassSimGroup() { return false; }
   virtual bool       isClassSimSet  () { return false; }

SimBase.cc
add this at the bottom:

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#define ConsoleMethodIsClass(function) ConsoleMethod( SimObject, function  , bool, 2, 2, ""){return object->function();}
ConsoleMethodIsClass(isClassAIPlayer)
ConsoleMethodIsClass(isClassPlayer  )
ConsoleMethodIsClass(isClassSimGroup)
ConsoleMethodIsClass(isClassSimSet  )
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

aiPlayer.h
at the bottom, in a public section, add this:

virtual bool isClassAIPlayer   ()          { return true; }

do the same for player, simset, simgroup.

now in the script side, %obj.isSimSet() will return true for SimSets, SimGroups, GuiControls, what-have-you.

you can also call the isClassFoo() methods right from in C++,
as i believe they'll be somewhat faster than doing a dynamic cast.

eg, instead of this:

SimObject* someObject;
AIPlayer* bob = dynamic_cast<AIPlayer*>(someObject);

you could do this:

SimObject* someObject;
AIPlayer* bob = someObject->isAIPlayer() ? (AIPlayer)bob : NULL;