Very interesting ideas here! However, I wonder a) how a stateful SystemNavigation can be kept backward compatible with the current version. And b) how does the StatefulSystemNavigation differ from a MessageTrace in terms of class responsibilities?

Just by the way, I have been dreaming for some time of a version of MessageTrace that has some filter buttons (Material is calling them "chips") on its top that you can use to filter your messages at every time. I'm aware of the existing "filter message list" menu, but I believe the UI can be improved at this point, and filters cannot be reverted again. Some combinable filter buttons like you may knowit from many modern websites (Google, eBay, ...) might be a nice extension IMHO.

<http://www.hpi.de/>
Maybe some of all these visions could go into the same tool. Just my 2 cents :-)

> I _wish_ I could write
>
>      Integer>>#gcd:
>
> and get a MethodReference instead of a CompiledMethod, since I can easily send #compiledMethod to a MethodReference if I want that (which, I never do, I only ever want the Reference).  I suppose I could implement CompiledMethod>>#asMethodReference, it'd just be so much nicer if it were the other way...

There is already CompiledMethod >> #methodReference, but I see your point. :-) However, we should be cautious with what Kent Beck says in his Best Practices about binary convenience messages (that's at least how I understand it):
"Represent object allocation as a message to one of the arguments to the Complete Creation Method. Add no more than three of these Constructor Methods per system you develop."
While #>>, #>>><http://forum.world.st/Discussion-Creating-message-sends-via-anObject-gt-gt-gt-selector-td5100235.html>, #<< etc. all might be useful shortcuts, they are quite contrary to the idea of natural readability of Smalltalk code because nobody understands them without reading their documentation. It's the same as Python things like "a[-3::-1]" which may be shorter than "(anArray allButLast: 2) reverse" but much more cryptic than the first one on the other hand.

Best,
Christoph
________________________________
Von: Squeak-dev <squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org> im Auftrag von Chris Muller <asqueaker at gmail.com>
Gesendet: Dienstag, 29. September 2020 23:51:32
An: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] The Inbox: Tools-ct.986.mcz



On Tue, Sep 29, 2020 at 7:18 AM Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda at gmail.com<mailto:eliot.miranda at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Marcel,


On Sep 3, 2020, at 6:15 AM, Marcel Taeumel <marcel.taeumel at hpi.de<mailto:marcel.taeumel at hpi.de>> wrote:


Hi --

#headingAndAutoselectForLiteral:do: is a private helper function to disguise a rather constant value, which is a prefix for a tool's label. It should not be used outside SystemNavigation. That would make things even worse.

The basic issue here is that there is no specific object for the concerns "user" or "sender". So, it is tediously derived or forwarded in a functional style.

We should find a way to get rid of #headingAndAutoselectForLiteral:do:. That very name indicates that there is something wrong with the overall invocation of SystemNavigation's public protocol.

+1.  Making a SystemNavigation stateful so that it can be assigned something for auto select would be great.  It could also take a pattern not just a string, and hence deal with multi keyword messages better.

If we separate the search and presentation functions there are several benefits too:

- we can get a calculus for search, so that we can have and and or. So something like search for all calls on methods that refer to selector a and selector b in class hierarchy c are easily expressed as the and of three elemental searches, fir selector a, for selector b, for class hierarchy c

- we can get rid of the duplication in the allFoo and browseAllFoo protocols, keeping the search and just sending browse to the result.

- we can derive results in the forms we’d like, so a “navigation” could answer methods, classes, packages, method references, etc

As a suggested implementation Object>>smalltalk or Object>>navigation answers a new SystemSearch instance; SystemSearch instances understand basic queries (allCallsOn:, allImplementorsOf: etc), and an and: and or: protocol that take either another SystemSearch or a message, and answer or update the receiver.  Then at any time one can send autoSelect: to the SystemSearch, and browse to see its results.

BTW, a concise way of creating a message might be cool; Message selector: #allCallsOn: argument: 123 is fine but a little verbose and tedious to type.  #allCallsOn: << { 123 } might be nice, or a little too cryptic.  I don’t know.

+1, I kinda like that!   Although, some objects already implement #<< , hmm...

For years, I've actually been wanting a convenience constructor for MethodReference.  I _wish_ I could write

     Integer>>#gcd:

and get a MethodReference instead of a CompiledMethod, since I can easily send #compiledMethod to a MethodReference if I want that (which, I never do, I only ever want the Reference).  I suppose I could implement CompiledMethod>>#asMethodReference, it'd just be so much nicer if it were the other way...

Btw, Andreas hated and I hate typing systemNavigation; so long.  I implement sn in Object as an abbreviation.  Hence my suggestion of smalltalk or navigator above.  search would be even better:

     (self search
          allCallsOn: #systemNavigation) “sets systemNavigation as the default auto select string”
          and: #inPackage: << { #Tools };
          browse

is much more flexible than
    self sysyemNavigation browseAllCallsOn: #systemNavigation loxalToPackage: #Tools

Or have and: be the default combinatorial so one can cascade ands:

     self search
          allCallsOn: #systemNavigation;
          inPackage: #Tools;
          browse

I like this last one.

A great improvement!  Except #search.  We should stay with #systemNavigation.  We developers have autoComplete, etc., we shouldn't poach Object>>#search from the API namespace from users.

For the ultimate method-selecting power in the universe, MaBehaviorFinder takes the above concept one step further.  Instead of always starting with "all" and filtering, it provides both adding AND removing filters.  So the above example could be:

       self systemNavigation
            addCallsOn: #systemNavigation ;         "adding filter"
            selectPackage: #Tools ;                         "removing filter"
            browse

Or, equally:

       self systemNavigation
            addPackage: #Tools ;                          "adding filter"
            selectCallsOn: #systemNavigation      "removing filter"
            browse

So, various "add" API, ADDS methods to the result, while various "select" API, removes them from the result.  (There's even a third family, "reject" which select the opposite of "select").

There's quite a few methods, but executing them in succession on a stateful instance, as you've described for SystemNavigation here, is exactly how it works, and it's fabulous!   :-D

Just in case anyone is interested in taking a peek at it for inspiration, the following will pop it up:

      Installer new merge: #maInstaller.
      (Smalltalk classNamed: #MaInstaller) new merge: #base.
      (Smalltalk classNamed: #MaBehaviorFinder) browse

 - Chris



Best,
Marcel


Am 03.09.2020 15:02:06 schrieb Thiede, Christoph <christoph.thiede at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de<mailto:christoph.thiede at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de>>:

Hi Chris,


thanks for your feedback!

> For your code contributions in general, please allow methods to have only a single exit as much as possible, as in the attached.

I think this is very much a question of favor - personally, I prefer guard clauses over the functional style unless both code paths have the same relevance for the whole method. In my opinion, an empty message list is clearly a secondary edge case only. :-)

> I like the multilingual change, but the purpose of using #headingAndAutoselectForLiteral:do: here wasn't obvious to me.

Yes, this is not really an intuitive message name ... What do you think about calling it #readLiteral:withHeadingAndStringDo: instead (plus making it public)?

Best,
Christoph
________________________________
Von: Chris Muller <asqueaker at gmail.com<mailto:asqueaker at gmail.com>>
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 2. September 2020 23:59:46
An: squeak dev; Thiede, Christoph
Betreff: Re: [squeak-dev] The Inbox: Tools-ct.986.mcz

Hi Christoph,

For your code contributions in general, please allow methods to have
only a single exit as much as possible, as in the attached.

I like the multilingual change, but the purpose of using
#headingAndAutoselectForLiteral:do: here wasn't obvious to me.

Best,
  Chris

On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 9:56 AM <commits at source.squeak.org<mailto:commits at source.squeak.org>> wrote:
>
> Christoph Thiede uploaded a new version of Tools to project The Inbox:
> http://source.squeak.org/inbox/Tools-ct.986.mcz
>
> ==================== Summary ====================
>
> Name: Tools-ct.986
> Author: ct
> Time: 2 September 2020, 4:55:38.538083 pm
> UUID: b4cdf611-f04b-0b40-8f61-34429f414cca
> Ancestors: Tools-ct.985
>
> Fixes MNU when adding senders of a non-string literal to a message trace (at the end, FindText was set to a number or something similar). Improves multilingual support.
>
> =============== Diff against Tools-ct.985 ===============
>
> Item was changed:
>   ----- Method: MessageTrace>>addParentMethodsSending: (in category 'building') -----
>   addParentMethodsSending: selectorSymbol
>
> +       ^ self systemNavigation
> +               headingAndAutoselectForLiteral: selectorSymbol
> +               do: [:label :autoSelect |
> +                       | methodsList |
> +                       methodsList := self systemNavigation allCallsOn: selectorSymbol.
> +                       methodsList ifEmpty: [
> +                               ^ self inform: ('There are no {1}' translated format: {label})].
> +                       self
> -       | methodsList |
> -       (methodsList := self systemNavigation allCallsOn: selectorSymbol) isEmpty
> -               ifTrue:
> -                       [ ^(PopUpMenu labels: ' OK ')
> -                               startUpWithCaption: 'There are no methods that send ', selectorSymbol ]
> -               ifFalse:
> -                       [ self
>                                 addParentMessages: methodsList
> +                               autoSelectString: autoSelect]
> -                               autoSelectString: selectorSymbol ]
>   !
>
>


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