On 25/03/20 2:11 PM, Eliot Miranda wrote:
> Why not change Object class>>readFrom: to answer mutable objects?

+1. Since immutability has been introduced only now, it makes sense for 
readFrom to return mutable objects and then use a message to turn it 
readonly. E.g.

     (Object readfrom: file) beReadOnly

BTW, the object being read is a secret key. Wouldn't making it mutable 
or allowing copies increase leak risk? Like mutability, we could mark 
certain objects as secrets so that they are wiped clean during garbage 
collection. Or, the garbage collector could wipe out the first word of 
an object while finalization.

Squeak often loads such small objects from files. Is there a way to load 
an entire object from a file in a single message (a counterpart to 
#saveOnFileNamed:). This could even be made a primitive for efficiency. 
The primitive can fail if the file exceeds a set limit (say 10% of free 
memory).

Regards .. Subbu