<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 2:00 AM, Travis Griggs <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:travisgriggs@gmail.com">travisgriggs@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
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One problem with this sort of 4GL'ification that was layered on top of VisualWorks 1.0 in this and other areas, was that you create an interesting dilemma for the programmer. There's two different ways of defining a Menu action now. I can go the supposed easy way with a quick tag shorthand notation, or I can send real messages. When do I choose which approach? How do I know when to give up on the one, and switch to the other? How do I swap back and forth? IMO, the effort is usually better spent making your API simple and easy to discover and use messages all the way down.</blockquote>
<div><br>This is a great summary of a common design issue. It happens when people make configuration files. HTML tags. Even when you make a Builder object in Smalltalk. It is hard to make sure there is only one way to do something, and when there are two ways, people have to choose, causing more work and making programming take longer. <br>
<br>-Ralph<br></div><div><br> </div></div><br>