From 7af9a944f002509b37910680ea7475e0a7d40491 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: fusiled <fusiled@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:35:31 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Allow nested modules

Use create_child to get a pointer to a Module inside a Module
and initialize it as usual with the initialize method.
---
 .gitignore                   | 7 +++++++
 include/Simo/module/Module.h | 9 ++++++++-
 tests/module/ModuleTest.cc   | 9 +++++++--
 3 files changed, 22 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index de30407..b97b08f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
+# CLion folders
 /.idea
 /cmake-build-*
+
+# guided_examples products
 /docs/guided_examples/*/build*
 /docs/guided_examples/flake.lock
+
 # Avoid adding symlinks
 /support/ides/clion/*
 
+# Products of SimoSim
+Simo.log
+statistics.yaml
 
 *.DS_Store
diff --git a/include/Simo/module/Module.h b/include/Simo/module/Module.h
index edad6fe..0f193de 100644
--- a/include/Simo/module/Module.h
+++ b/include/Simo/module/Module.h
@@ -162,7 +162,6 @@ class SIMO_PUBLIC Module {
 
   Log::Logger& get_logger() { return logger; }
 
- protected:
   /// Create a new statistic of type T
   template <typename T, typename... Args>
   T& create_statistic(Args... args) {
@@ -179,8 +178,16 @@ class SIMO_PUBLIC Module {
     return out_ref;
   }
 
+  template <typename T, typename... Args>
+  T& create_child(Args... args) {
+    children.emplace_back(std::make_unique<T>(std::forward<Args>(args)...));
+    return *children.back();
+  }
+
+ protected:
   Statistics::StatStorage statistics;
   std::unordered_map<std::string, std::unique_ptr<Port>> ports;
+  std::vector<std::unique_ptr<Module>> children;
   Log::Logger logger;
 
  private:
diff --git a/tests/module/ModuleTest.cc b/tests/module/ModuleTest.cc
index 1706b09..60b8f3b 100644
--- a/tests/module/ModuleTest.cc
+++ b/tests/module/ModuleTest.cc
@@ -106,12 +106,17 @@ BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(StdoutLogSetupEnablesLogger) {
   BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(logger.enabled(), true);
 }
 
-BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(NameOfChild) {
+BOOST_AUTO_TEST_CASE(ModuleChild) {
   Simo::Context ctx;
   Simo::Parameters p;
   Simo::Module m;
   p.name("root");
   const auto status = m.initialize(ctx, p);
+  auto& child = m.create_child<Simo::Module>();
   auto child_name = m.name_of_child("child");
-  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(child_name, "root/child");
+  Simo::Parameters p_child;
+  p_child.name(child_name);
+  auto child_status = child.initialize(ctx, p_child);
+  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(child_status.success(), true);
+  BOOST_CHECK_EQUAL(p_child.name(), "root/child");
 }