[squeak-dev] Re: The Trunk: Tools-mt.534.mcz

Chris Muller asqueaker at gmail.com
Sat Feb 28 17:58:29 UTC 2015


I didn't realize this was for method categories too because you said
the "System Browser", which I almost never use..  This actually
affects every browser with a message-category list.

The type of ordering I like to do for message protocols is "usage
order".  For example:

   setup
   build
   summarize
   private

In this object, you have to do a "setup" before you can "build".  You
have to "build" before you can "summarize".  Alphabetical order blows
that up and now puts private in the middle instead of at the bottom,
where I prefer it to be..

Marcel, I hope you'll forgive me for saying, this type of thing which
affect others' daily development are good to negotiate from the Inbox
instead of trunk because going straight to trunk guarantees a lot more
"trial" or "interim" versions in our trunk history instead of only
"finished" versions (reducing the density of the historical record).

> I prefer to have common category such as "accessing" at the top.

That's what "alphabetize" is for.   :)

> Particular
> orders are single-developer only. Team development gets difficult,
> I guess.
> Doing linear search in each and every class is hard and annoying. :-)

No list in Squeak ever needs to be linearly-scanned by ones eyes if
you simply type a few letters of the list entry you want right in the
list.  The Filter feature remember?

That's what I use all the time regardless if a list is already
alphabetized, because it also performs the navigation for me.

Alphabetizing a list does very little to improve my access to it,
thanks to the list-Filtering feature.

> We could make it a preference then, but I vote for enabling it by default.

I vote for disabled by default.  Because not only would "alphabetize"
be rendered obsolete I guess "reorganize" as well..?

> What would developers want to bother sorting method categories on their own?
> Encoding some secret path through the code? I suppose it is hardly
> discoverable by other developers.

My above example helps me with my *own* code which I wrote years ago.
I come into a class I wrote years ago, I see the order of the message
categories, and I have an immediate "summary" of how this kind of
object is supposed to be used.

The order conveys information about usage, I love it.

> Sorting things alphabetically is a common thing and lets you as a user
> perform binary search quickly.

Which is still much slower and more laborious than simply using the
Filter feature.

Disabled by default please.   :)


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