<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 25.10.2010, at 23:10, Eliot Miranda wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Lawson English <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lenglish5@cox.net">lenglish5@cox.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago: "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" (except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties and behavior with individual classes, ..."<br>
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Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to understand, or is this an error?<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>"(except private instance variables)" looks like a dig or a jibe. I would have put it</div>
<div><br></div><div> "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" paradigm by allowing classes to have their own specific state and behavior, ..."</div><div> </div>
<div>Perhaps they were trying to say that because Smalltalk lacks private instance variables Smalltalk objects are not true objects, which is I suppose arguable. But it makes poor sense to state that private instance variables aren't objects; public inst vars aren't objects either.</div>
</div></blockquote><br></div><div>It's plain nonsense. Here's the edit that added the "private instance" modifier:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smalltalk&diff=prev&oldid=280020438">http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smalltalk&diff=prev&oldid=280020438</a></div><div><br></div><div>Someone should just correct it.</div><br><div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; ">- Bert -</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span>
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