There was some discussion about the "#" issue recently so let's

PROPOSAL

Change Symbol printString to emit

   #xxx

if xxx is a valid smalltalk identifier and

   #'xxx'

otherwise.  There should be already a method to determine whether a symbol 
is a valid identifer but I don't know its name at the moment.

PROBLEMS

A lot of stuff will break (especially in the Browser and other tools), 
mainly because

   aStream print: aSymbol

is (mis)used instead of

   aStream nextPutAll: aSymbol

This needs to be fixed.  As 2.8 shouldn't be affected by this change, I'd 
recommend to apply this change to 2.9a once its started.

WORKAROUND

Provide the old implementation in a method called #displayString.  Also 
provide a #display: method for Streams.  Then introduce the change and fix 
the problems that will occur by replacing #printString or #print: with the 
according display methods.

Object>>displayString
    ^ self printString

Stream>>display: anObject
    self nextPutAll: anObject displayString


REASONING

The refactoring goal is to eventually replace all textual display methods 
with special display methods and keep the print methods to the debugger and 
inspector.  The rule is:  printString is for the programmer to debug, 
displayString for the program to view.  The same framework is used in 
VisualWorks and Dolphin Smalltalk.


bye
--
Stefan Matthias Aust // Bevor wir fallen, fallen wir lieber auf