Question

Is is possible to define something like OOP-style instance method for a record in VHDL to be recognized by XST?

For a record type rectangle:

type rectangle is record
    x      : integer;
    y      : integer;
    width  : integer;
    height : integer;
end record; 

I’d like to define methods like is_square, get_area, etc.

Can it be done using attributes?

Answer 1

No, but you can get close with protected types.

Here’s an example, taken from Protected Shared Variables in VHDL: IEEE Std 1076a

type shared_counter is protected body
     variable count : integer := 0;
     procedure reset is
     begin
         count := 0;
     end procedure reset;
     procedure increment (by : integer := 1) is
     begin
         count := count + by;
     end procedure increment;
     impure function value return integer is
     begin
         return count;
     end function value;
end protected body shared_counter;

I have no idea if the concept of a protected type is synthesisable with XST though.