[Squeakland] Alternate realities, anyone?

[Joshua Fein]

ALTERNATE reality

Doing this right would be extremely technical, in
terms of abilities required to implement.  I myself do
not yet possess that ability, and in truth have only a
limited desire to discuss the pro & cons of the idea.

Successful implementation would involve re-thinking
what happens when a class gets re-defined, a very
complex, system-level task. "Categories" would have to
be viewed as more fundamental units, perhaps.  Another
tier, "Alternates" above "Category" might resolve the
problem.  Have to think about this more.  Having it
mesh with the current "world" "project" scheme would
be a plus, only that is so complicated!

ALTERNATE worldS

--->right now the categories are only place-holders,
'comments' they do not have any effect on the system
itself.
--->right now, when a class with an existing name is
reentered under a new category, 
    it is removed, and it's unique methods added to
the class entered under the new category.

--->I was proposing that a change be made so that:

--->Classes may have the same names but be in
different categories.
	depending on what 'world' or 'project' ('alternate'
flagged world) you are in, the class 
	being referred to may be in one category or another.
---> only complex when 'active' i.e. there are two
worlds which use the same class name but defined 
    under different categories.  Otherwise the Squeak
environment would look just like it does now.
---> idea similar to versioning but applicable to the
application environment.


start with this example:

You have a class SlideShowMorph under the
classification SlideAuditor.
You have another, differently defined SlideShowMorph
under the classification SlideShow.

When smalltalk reads the second classification,
SlideShow, it creates a 'project' or 'world' for which
that definition of SlideShowMorph is valid (and ...

	a) an entry "SlideShow" in another level above
'category' 
	('Alternates'... unless 'Universe' behavior could be
modified?) or 
	b) maybe as another kind of category?  ("SlideShow"
the 'Alternate' flagged category) or 
	c) a special flag on the the class itself?  (the
'Alternate' flagged SlideShowMorph) or
	d) All of the above?

At the 'top' level, only the minimal set (In this
case, all classes in the current version of smalltalk,
since none of them conflict) , of the non-conflicting
classes are accessible.

to access the conflicting classes, one has to be in
one 'world' or another. (i.e. the "SlideAuditor" 
world if SlideShowMorph was included as part of the
minimal set) 


ALTERNATE programming environments, ALTERNATE
careers...

The bottom line may be that smalltalk as it is defined
in Squeak simply is not flexible enough to allow this
sort of construct, that one would end up with a system
that is a mere bastardization of itself, like the
"objective" C environment I am currently trying to use
on the Mac... which is still successful, because in
Xcode/macland, it's still the only game in town (If ya
wanna be a programmer, that is).

the taxi drivers grumble, but hey,no mac programmers
are complaining.

So it COULD be done...


IN A FUTURE LETTER: Why the taxi-drivers grumble, how
to make squeak more consistent with itself.   


		
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