David,
you might want to take a look at
http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/languages/smalltalk/Smalltalk/Squeak/docs/SmalltalkSignatures.htm
This was an effort to provide a kind of specification of intent for
Smalltalk methods and classes.
Regards,
Sam

Sam S. Adams, IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM Research
tie line 444-0736, outside 919-254-0736, email: ssadams at us.ibm.com
<<Hebrews 11:6, Proverbs 3:5-6, Romans 1:16-17, I Corinthians 1:10>>



                                                                                                                                                
                      David Faden <dfaden at mac.com>                                                                                              
                      Sent by:                                To:       squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org                                   
                      squeak-dev-admin at lists.squeakfou        cc:                                                                               
                      ndation.org                             Subject:  Informally specifying Squeak                                            
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                
                      04/14/2002 01:19 AM                                                                                                       
                      Please respond to squeak-dev                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                



Hi,
    I'm considering doing an independent study project and am wondering
how I might make the results of the project useful to the Squeak
community.  The project would involve revising an informal specification
of Smalltalk's key built-in types (based on Little Smalltalk) to fit
with Squeak. The present version of the document, "Overview and
Specification of the Built-In Types in Little Smalltalk" by Gary Leavens
and Yoonsik Cheon, is available at
ftp://ftp.cs.iastate.edu/pub/techreports/TR91-22/TR.ps.Z and is cached
at http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/89686.html.
    For example, Boolean's and: method is specified as follows:
and:     self: Boolean, aBlock: Block -> b: Boolean
    Requires: aBlock takes no arguments and returns a Boolean.
    Modifies at most: the objects modified by the execution of aBlock.
    Ensures: b is false if self is false; otherwise b is the result of
evaluating aBlock.

    What could I do to make this work most useful to the Squeak community?
    How would you suggest presenting the specification? (My first
inclination is to insert a method's specification into its comment so as
to make the specification available from a browser.)
    Thank you.

David