Hello all,

I'd like to advocate a few changes.  First, anything that can be 
done in the way of ANSI compatibility would be helpful.  I view this 
more as journey than a destination, and am not in any particular 
hurry.

Second (this one is controversial, even repulsive to some), the 
"hijacking" of the underscore should be fixed, IMHO.  Here is my 
argument:

(1) Users wanting to shortcut _ into := should be able to have it 
provided for them in the editor; it could further see that a $= has 
just been backspaced out of existence and look for an adjacent $: 
to go with it.  I personally don't even notice typing :=, but can see 
why some might want the shortcut; but, I disagree with how deeply 
it's been allowed to penetrate the sources, compiler, etc..

(2) Scamper is hurt by the translation; any file names etc. 
containing underscores get mangled by it.

(3) Lots of databases (not just mine I'm discovering - don't ask<g>) 
use uderscores in table and field names.  It's really nice to have 
matching selectors in corresponding classes.  Maybe I did 
something wrong, but when I tried the scanner patch to allow 
underscores inside selectors (I could generally live with the no 
leading underscore restriction), I ended up with <- in the method 
names :(

(4) Sometimes text to be displayed to the user really contains an 
uderscore (not just in file names, etc.) - it should be possible to 
display it as such.

The third and "final" item (I'll think of more later<g>) has to do with 
read streams.  Prior to structured exceptions, it made sense for 
#next and #next: to answer nil vs. raising an error on exhaustion.  I 
realize that Flow will eventually address this, but it seems that the 
existing streams should be revamped unless it's highly problematic 
to do so.

Much of my interest in Squeak is associated with a Microsoft 
escape plan that I hope I will never need.  As I become able to 
jump through more hoops with it, I start thinking about "how would I 
port X to Squeak?" and start running into these mundane kinds of 
issues.

Bill


Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bills at anest4.anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029