hello Subbu,

Up until now I used v4.4 version image. I thought that my Smalltalk image was broken after it reported that character has zero instances, -- no, I don't need a solution here, it is the concern of having a system which is less coherent than it was (v4.4).

Your second definition for the term Instance, I believe, is not good, -- where is it taken from? Here, as a user I care about interface and correct results, not about performance.

The name of a method is essential in order to understand what the system does. Now, v5.3 states that there are 0 instances of the Character in it. This is not true. We could rename the method, register a bug for the X release, or why not signal an exception (#NotImplemented)? Because as it stands now, class Character does not know how to respond to a question about its instances but instead it claims to know and gives the incorrect answer.

regards,

Vaidotas

On Sun, Mar 1, 2020 at 7:07 AM K K Subbu <kksubbu.ml@gmail.com> wrote:

On 01/03/20 1:41 AM, Vaidotas Didžbalis wrote:
> Thank you for your explanations, but ... but we have characters in the
> image. Having a characters in the image means that Character has
> instances. If alInstances method cannot report about them, it shall fire
> exception perhaps, or, name allInstances must be changed to something
> else, isn't it?

Instance has two meanings.

* the first one is as you explain it. This is usually the meaning
intended in all textbooks and applies to the overall object model (e.g.
$a isKindOf: Object is true).

* The second one is an object allocated in memory and is the one of most
interest in practice. Such objects need memory allocation, reference
counting and garbage collection services. The method allInstances uses
the word instances in the latter sense. Immediate objects don't need
these services, so they are not considered. (e.g. $a class
isImmediateClass is true).

This is like calling 45, 045 or 0045 as two digit numbers because
leading zeros are not significant in practice.

Could you explain the context behind your question?

Regards .. Subbu
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