At 11:13 AM 9/21/98 -0700, Dan Ingalls wrote: [snip]
THE BIGGER ISSUE As you (may) know ANSI compatibility is of no importance to me, *except* that I know it affects the synergy of this community with the larger Smalltalk community, and that *is* important to me.
A possible process for moving forward here would be for "a few good Squeakers" to step forward and work together to propose some reasonable set of changes
that
would maximize ANSI compatibility, while minimizing any detriment to Squeak's current direction. What I have in mind is a sort of "10 most wanted" changes rather than a massive overhaul.
[snip]
So, maybe folks would like to propose their "10 most wanted" changes for compatibility, and/or announce their willingness to work together over the next month or so to assemble such a package. My role would be limited to reviewing suggestions and code, and coordinating an orderly progress of code updates.
I'm still learning Smalltalk and am self taught--it shows. Most of my experience is with Smalltalk Express (SE) and some with Squeak and Dolphin Smalltalk.
I have implemented a flawed, first-cut, pre-alpha, proof-of-concept, partial implementation of the proposed ANSI standard Smalltalk in Smalltalk Express (SE). Partial because the ScaledDecial class and a few other methods have not been implemented as I just didn't know how to do some things. I've ported the SIF reader/writer, and the Fundamental, Valuable and, Exception protocols to Squeak. I have not posted it publicly because I wanted to implement it in a fairly platform independent way (possibly with macros), hoped to get some help getting exceptions reliably implemented, get some feedback on implementing the SIF format reader/writer better, and get a ScaledDecial implementation.
Given my slow pace, and Dan's suggestion, I think it's time for me ask if there anyone interested in taking a look at my ANSI exception handling stuff to see if they can make it reliable, or at the SIF format reader/writer to see if it is an acceptable for a first release.
If so, in a week or so I will mail them the SIF reader/writer, and the Fundamental, Valuable and, Exception protocols to Squeak that I've got so far. I'll finish up porting the rest of the ANSI stuff which won't take more than 2 - 4 weeks. With reliable exception, an acceptable SIF reader/writer first release, and rest of the ANSI stuff, I'll then post the complete Squeak proposed ANSI standard Smalltalk enhancement.
I think with a swiki page for people to add bug reports and fixes for them the community would produce in a relatively short time a robust, reliable, reasonably compliant Squeak proposed ANSI standard Smalltalk enhancement that we might want to incorporate into the base Squeak.
I would not be able to coordinate the effort as I don't play all that well with others.
If no one is interested, has the time, or is able to square away exceptions, I'll keep plugging away at it. I might take me a fair amount of time to understand exceptions fully enough to get it right.
I know my stuff isn't ready for prime time and I have no idea if it is acceptable, usable, or completely useless as I haven't worked with anyone else. I'm pretty sure that it would be useful for folks to at least see the pieces (what messages in what classes) are probable required by ANSI. I think if folks are presented with all the pieces, correcting or re-implementing some things is easier than trying to build the whole thing or even trying to build subsystems of it.
Note I started with VSExceptions for Squeak and after unmercifully hacking it up beyond recognition to add the ANSI stuff, I think it works. Some of the exception methods dealing with resumption aren't implemented or don't work. I'm completely out of my depth with exceptions.
The SIF format reader/writer is very fragile, and I think the ugliest implementation I can imagine. It reads and writes ANSI SIF files just fine, but my teeth hurt every time I look at the implementation code. I'm now doing a second cut at the SIF format reader/writer.
I haven't documented my stuff yet so that it is usable for folks without a GREAT deal of perseverance and an extensive Smalltalk knowledge so they can follow my clumsy code.
I would love to have others try it out, find bugs, implement those areas I have deferred, and just generally give me comments (good or bad), suggestions, and alternatives.
-- Richard A. Harmon "The only good zombie is a dead zombie" harmonra@webname.com E. G. McCarthy
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