[squeak-dev] Re: Collection>>sum implementation

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Tue Aug 12 16:39:44 UTC 2008


Colin Putney wrote:
> This is  a bit like the #join: debate that comes up every now and then 
> when a Ruby/Python/Perl ex-pat asks how it is that we don't have  a 
> method for joining an array of strings into a single string. The short 
> answer is that it's because #join: only makes sense when all the 
> elements of a collection are strings, and therefore, it's bad design.

I have to disagree. Have you ever looked at the senders of 
do:separatedBy: (which is the easiest way to find lots the places that 
would be improved by join)? For example:

ClassDscription>>instanceVariablesString
   "Answer a string of my instance variable names separated by spaces."
   ^String streamContents: [ :stream |
     self instVarNames
       do: [ :each | stream nextPutAll: each ]
       separatedBy: [ stream space ] ]

Why should code like this be duplicated throughout the system? If the 
requirement is that join: is only to join strings (which is fine with 
me) then convert the input to strings! It's simple, see:

SequenceableCollection>>join: delimiter
   "Join the elements of the receiver using the given delimiter"
   ^String streamContents:[:s|
     self do:[:each| s nextPutAll: each asString]
          separatedBy:[s nextPutAll: delimiter asString]].

and the first example becomes:

ClassDescription>>instanceVariablesString
   "Answer a string of my instance variable names separated by spaces."
   ^self instVarNames join: ' '

This is a muchly improved version as far as I am concerned.

> This is similar. I'd say the best way to improve #sum would be to delete 
> it.

It is indeed similar. In such that Collection>>sum is just as useful a 
utility that should be supported as well. I see no problem in requiring 
that #sum is only valid for non-empty input and the result is undefined 
(returning, nil, 0, or an error) if used on an empty collection.

Cheers,
   - Andreas



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