On 25.10.2010, at 23:10, Eliot Miranda wrote:

> 
> 
> On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Lawson English <lenglish5 at cox.net> wrote:
> In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago:  "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" (except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties and behavior with individual classes, ..."
> 
> 
> Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to understand, or is this an error?
> 
> "(except private instance variables)" looks like a dig or a jibe.  I would have put it
> 
>  "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" paradigm by allowing classes to have their own specific state and behavior, ..."
>  
> Perhaps they were trying to say that because Smalltalk lacks private instance variables Smalltalk objects are not true objects, which is I suppose arguable.  But it makes poor sense to state that private instance variables aren't objects; public inst vars aren't objects either.

It's plain nonsense. Here's the edit that added the "private instance" modifier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smalltalk&diff=prev&oldid=280020438

Someone should just correct it.

- Bert -


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