Maurice and Travis --
Dan Ingalls and I (seperately) were very taken with parts of APL in our youth, and. over the years, have been quite excited at the possibilities that polymorphism brings to this kind of generalization of collections. It is now time to take another pass at the algebraic roots of Smalltalk/Squeak. Suggestions please -- the best kind are not so much add-ons, but comprehensive schemes that are both powerful, readable, and help users think ...
Cheers,
Alan
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At 7:36 AM -0000 8/26/98, Maurice Rabb wrote:
Scary to have your own quotes, long forgotten, dredged up out of the dust. I feel like Bill (Gates or Clinton, take your pick). What continues to gnaw at brain is what you sum up so well with the statement
I regret my inapropriate relationship with my Squeak archives. :-) Seriously, I didn't mean to use your quote as a kidney punch. I just though your comments were so apropos. The tough questions are definitely cyclical. Unfortunately, the lousy ones (ala C++ vs Smalltalk) repeat as well.
For a while now, we've had a ?framework? in VisualWorks that I've thought about porting over to Squeak and releasing, but I've always feared the flame about diluting protocols. But tonight, I'm coming out. :)
[munch]
blow my friends and teachers away. I would just whip up little expressions:
#((1 2 3 4 5) + #(6 7 8 9 10) * 4) sum
Hmmm, that looks pretty cool and compelling to me.
Maybe the arithmetic protocol is one that dilutes better.
This reminds me of the "is Point a Magnitude or not" discussion.
Your comments have given me the courage to add the arithmetic protocols I really want to Rectangle. BTW, is Squeak arithmetic now using some sort of hybrid between double dispatch and coercion? What is the advantage? It used to use straight coercion, right? Travis are you still using your DD changeSet?
--Maurice
Maurice Rabb 773.281.6003 Stono Technologies, LLC Chicago, USA
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