On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Lawson English <lenglish5 at cox.net> wrote:

>  On 10/25/10 2:23 PM, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>
>
>  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.
>
>  So now I just confused (more). Instance variables are NOT objects in
> Squeak?
>

No they're not.  They're elements of objects.  Instance variables contain
references to objects but you can't send messages to instance variables,
only to their contents.  In Smalltalk instance variables implement the state
of objects while classes implement the behavior of objects.

HTH
Eliot


>
> Lawson
>
>
>
>
>
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