[squeak-dev] Re: Pragma support in Squeak/Pharo/Cuis

Chris Muller asqueaker at gmail.com
Sat Jan 29 20:27:36 UTC 2011


Thanks for this great discussion y'all; it's great to learn from your
experience about good uses for pragmas.

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 5:16 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 1:39 PM, Chris Cunnington
> <smalltalktelevision at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've got some notes from 2 May 2010 about pragmas. Eliot produced this
>> example at the time:
>>
>>        x := Editor class compiledMethodAt: #blinkingCursor.
>>
>>        x pragmas
>> {<preference: 'Blinking Text Cursor' category: 'Morphic' description:
>> 'When true, the text cursor will blink.' type: #Boolean>}.
>>
>> I think that corresponds with his message today:
>>
>>>  Having it as a message pattern means:
>>> - one can search for references to the method tag by searching for
>>> senders
>>> of the message tag's selector
>>
>> But the ultimate destination of all method annotations is a #perform:?
>
> Not necessarily, but often this can be a powerful pattern.  If a method tag
> means something, can be interpreted somehow, then effecting this
> interpretation via a perform is delightfully direct and minimal.  But
> sometimes the meaning is beyond the system (e.g. as I wrote to myself today
> <flag: 'rewrite this crap.'> ;) ) and so there is no interpretation that can
> be implemented in Smalltalk code.
>>
>> I take that from this:
>>
>>> - one can provide implementation(s) of the selector and hence execute the
>>> method tag using perform
>>
>> So the ultimate destination of all pragmas/method annotations/method tags
>> is that somewhere a #perform: lurks waiting
>> for it? Sometimes that's the Compiler class and sometimes it's another
>> class with a #perform:.
>
> Certainly that's possible for a significant subset of  potential uses.
>>
>> I'd appreciate it if somebody could say if this is an accurate picture.
>> A "yes" will do it.
>
> yes, with caveats :)
> best
> Eliot
>
>>
>> Chris
>
> Stitch: I'm having a good day
>
>
>
>



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