Thanks Jecel,
I had the "class" button selected when looking at Object and thought I was looking at the methods which the Object class understood - didn't realize there was a whole other hierarchy on the class side - why doesn't it say something like:
ProtoObject class subclass #Object class
instanceVariableNames: ''
and why can't you spawn a class side heirarchy?
Behavior ClassDescription Class ProtoObject class Object class
I am sure this will all make sense after awhile. Thanks again.
Karl
the first thing you must ask yourself is if the method you are looking for is understood by instances of Object (and so is found in Object itself) or by Object itself (and so is found in "Object class").
#new is the second case (as you can see by which button is selected in the system browser: instance/comment/class) and so you must ask who is the superclass of "Object class" and *not* who is the superclass of "Object". It is easier if you "Object class inspect" and then keep following the superclass links. You will end up in "Behavior class" like you (almost) expected.
-- Jecel
On Thursday 29 March 2001 14:37, Karl Wilson wrote:
why doesn't it say something like:
ProtoObject class subclass #Object class
instanceVariableNames: ''
When you do "ProtoObject subclass: #Object ..." this method takes care of all these little details automatically.
and why can't you spawn a class side heirarchy?
Behavior ClassDescription Class ProtoObject class Object class
Ooops - I had said you would reach "Behavior class" but that was wrong. Since the system created all these metaclasses behind your back and doesn't even bother to give them proper names, showing them like this would probably cause more confusion. It is easy to patch the tools to do this, but I don't think it is a good idea.
I am sure this will all make sense after awhile. Thanks again.
Others have given a lot of great pointers to more information about this than most people want to know. I prefer the alternative adopted by the Self dialect of Smalltalk - simply design this complication out of the language! http://www.sun.com/research/self/
-- Jecel
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