is squeak really object oriented ?

jan ziak ziakjan at host.sk
Thu May 22 19:55:29 UTC 2003


hi. I've got a strange question: is squeak really an object oriented system 
or it only claims it is? the point of the question is that instead of working 
with objects, i work mostly with text. the objects are in fact only in my 
head, as a consequence of reading sources of objects which are in the 
browser. but the objects are not tangible, i cannot see them. for example, 
let's take an instance of an OrderedCollection: this object is in fact not an 
object but a textual representation of it, I cannot see the collection on my 
workspace and must simulate all its behavior on my own and imagine it in my 
head.

another problem is that when i am writing the source code of an object, i do 
not work with objects again. i only manipulate text and imagine those 
objects, but the objects are not on my workspace. i think that object 
oriented programming should look like working with objects and not with text.

so, is squeak for work with objects or with text ?

another example: suppose that, after 3 hours of hard experimentation, i have 
finally obtained a list of numbers which contain the results of my 
experiments. the numbers are of great signifance to me because i am totally 
unable to replicate them (because i do not preciselly remember how i obtained 
them for example). let the numbers be concentrated in an instance of 
OrderedCollection. so i have an ordered collection instance and numbers in 
it. as next, i want to incorporate my numeric list in a source code of some 
class. wouldn't it be logical to simply insert a reference to my list into 
the source code in places where i want to use my list object? in think that 
the squeak system answers: "no it wouldn't. you must make a textual 
representation of your object and ...".

so, are we working with objects or just manipulating text ?

giving objects names and them using those names is just one way of how to 
interconnect those objects. i want to work with objects not with their names, 
so why should i give names to objects anyway.

jz.



More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list