[DOCS] SUnit tests (was Re: Documentation [was: Morphic tutorial])

Hannes Hirzel hannes.hirzel.squeaklist at bluewin.ch
Fri Feb 21 20:35:09 UTC 2003


Hello John

John W. Sarkela <sarkela at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On Friday, February 21, 2003, at 01:06 AM, Lex Spoon wrote:
> 
> > Daniel Vainsencher <danielv at netvision.net.il> wrote:
> >> 2. The reflection protocols - everything that Browser and Inspector 
> >> use
> >> to look at and change classes and objects, including the ClassBuilder.
> >> This might be partially covered by the ANSI suite. It's important
> >> because the tools themselves are complex enough right now that it's 
> >> not
> >> obvious alway obvious how things are done.
> >>
> >
> > There is no reflection in ANSI Smalltalk.
> >
> >
> > -Lex
> >
> YES YES YES. This is perhaps the most hotly misunderstood
> aspect of the ANSI standard. It is a non-reflective declaration
> powerful enough to describe a fully reflective runtime program.
> 
> Most users of VSE never realized that they were revisioning
> non-reflective declarations of very reflective programs. 

Could you please elaborate this a bit or send a pointer
to a paper which gives more details.

> This
> declarative technique is the razor's edge by which a "timeless"
> configuration of a program may be archived independently
> of the very dynamic image in which it was generated.

This is exciting stuff. You say that there is a method
of writing smalltalk code that is timeless. Please tell us more.
 
> This is also the reason why ginsu was able to modularize
> the image with absolutely no impact on the structure or declaration
> of the core image.
> 
> But I have said that more than once in this forum.
> 
> Redundantly yours,
>
> John W. Sarkela

Well perhaps from your point of view this may have been
said redundantly. Perhaps you even have said it quite loudly.

For various reasons people seemingly didn't get the message.
Perhaps this time now.

In any case thank you for reminding us about these issues. 
I will check the archives and later perhaps come up with additional
questions. I'd like to have these things thouroughly documented.
Of couse this could include pointers to books/articles you or Joseph
Pelrine have written. 

A remark: Redundancy is a necessary asset of human
communication. For example in a speech saying a thing
several times means you put an emphasis on it.
(see for example the speeches of the president of a well
known superpower).
The nature of a mailing list like this is something in between
oral and written communication.

Regards
Hannes Hirzel



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