I seem to be off the list at the moment or missing messages so I
missed the first post apparently.

The fact is, no matter how obvious the language is there are patterns
we use.  Sure in some instanses the method can be obvious enough
to be understood.  But there are plenty of OO patterns that are not
obvious if you have not seen them before and sometimes even if you
have.  You may be able to read from the code what it is doing, but
you are going to be thinking "why in the world is he doing this?".

Also, if you work with a pretty complicated subsystem (i.e. uses lots
of underlying objects to get work done) do you really find it a good
solution to dig through class after class after class just to find out
what an interface (i.e. what the subsystem end users use) method
does?  And even if you do, someone new to the language isn't.

And must every usage of a new subsystem be a trip through every
method in that system?  Can't I just get a list of what the useful
methods are and how to use them?

I appreciate the simplicity of the language, but it is because of this
reason one must guard against the false feeling of "self documenting
code".  You don't have to document every method ever, but ANY
interface to the subsystem should be documented some how and
any method over a certain number of lines should be documented.

Even if you coded right in pure english, I still wouldn't know *why*
you did it the way you did, and therefor I wouldn't know *why* I
shouldn't just change it.


>From: "Hiren Thacker" <hithacker at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>To: "The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list"<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>Subject: Re: Thoughts from an outsider
>Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 23:17:20 +0530
>
>>Great post, but one comment.  I used to feel the same way, until I 
>>realized
>>sample code is the best documentation there is, and alt + n on any method
>>pulls up every reference to that method in the image providing me with
>>plenty of examples of that method in use.  The browsers and code have
>become
>>THE documentation to me at this point and I rarely find I need, or want,
>>anything more than that.  I don't think it's a cop out or a lie to say the
>>code is self documenting, it's simply a point of view one comes to hold
>>after working in Smalltalk long enough.
>
>I do agree completely, even though i m working in smalltalk from few 
>months.
>And regardlessly Smalltalk code in Squeak image is really much more 
>readable
>than
>most languages libraries.
>
>--
>Hiren 
>J.Thacker(www.jroller.com/page/daredevi<http://www.jroller.com/page/daredevil>
>l)
>
>[sorry for very bad english :D]


>