On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Noel J. Bergman wrote:

>
> That sounds better, for when changing a public class is the necessary
> approach.  At least it puts more control over the situation.  Will browsers
> support modules, so that we can view classes not just by package but also by
> module, and methods not just by category but also by module?  Yes, I did
> search the Swiki for content mentioning Modules, but I didn't notice any
> info on browsing once Modulars are part of the system.

Just as we use a '-' in a package name to break it up into a two-level
heirarchial system, maybe we could do the same in catagories? Where, each
module creates one or more catagories of methods, prefixed with the module
name. That would be 'relatively' simple to add in? It wouldn't
prevent name-collision, but it would some ability to browse a class by
module.

And, automatic tools could check the selectors of all methods in a module
to see what other selectors they invoke, and if any of them is in another
class, it warns, or at least remarks on the dependency?

I've read no literature on smalltalk modularity, but this seems like it
would be at least a poor-mans method of indicating modules in the code
they write.


Scott