PharoCompatibility (was Re: NBHelp in Squeak (Re: [squeak-dev] Re: Why FFI is not included with latest squeak ?))

Chris Muller asqueaker at gmail.com
Sun Aug 26 21:50:03 UTC 2012


We have Symbol>>#isKeyword and #isUnary but you didn't complain about those..

One of the first things learned by new Smalltalkers is that selectors
are Symbols and there are three types of selectors.  IMO, #isBinary is
long overdue to be included in the API.



On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 1:40 PM, David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 26, 2012 at 03:28:37PM +0200, Levente Uzonyi wrote:
>> On Sun, 26 Aug 2012, Frank Shearar wrote:
>>
>> >On 25 August 2012 22:12, H. Hirzel <hannes.hirzel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>Igor,
>> >>
>> >>Below are the instructions for loading PetitParser manually. NBHelp
>> >>needs PetitParser.
>> >>The Monticello configuration needs to be adapted so that it works fine
>> >>for Squeak as well.
>> ><snip>
>> >>How to load NBHelp in Squeak 4.3
>> >>================================
>> >>
>> >>Load Pharo compatibility package for Squeak
>> >>-------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >>Load
>> >>[PharoCompatibility](http://www.squeaksource.com/PharoCompatibility)
>> >>by Frank Shearar
>> >>
>> >>This package contains as the only method
>> >>
>> >>    Symbol>>isBinary
>> >>        ^ self precedence = 2.
>> >
>> >Are there any objections to folding this single method into trunk?
>>
>> I'd like to see a comment about what it means and that it's the same as
>> #isInfix. Maybe the implementation could be simply: ^self isInfix
>>
>
> +1 to a good comment.
>
> I would not object to including Symbol>>isBinary if it helps compatibility,
> but I can't help but point out that it seems to a poor naming choice. What
> in the world is a "binary symbol"? From the name alone I would have inferred
> a symbol with two possible states, such as #true and #false. The name #inInfix
> is better because it gives a clue to the reader, who may understand that "infix"
> has something to do with parsing as opposed to the general concept of binary-ness.
>
> Dave
>
>


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