"David N. Smith (IBM)" dnsmith@watson.ibm.com pointed out: HeadMorph>>addSpikyHair | hair | hair _ PolygonMorph vertices: {83@3. 81@30. 91@27. 111@23. 97@32. 112@37. 99@45. 114@52. ... }
Anyone who wants to simplify the parser by eliminating {...} could simplify it still further by eliminating #(...) as well. After all, #(...) can be eliminated just like {...}.
It has always seemed a shame that there was no way to get a Point into a literal array. It could be done: where <number> is allowed, allow <number>@<number>. That would be a special case, but the whole of #(...) is a special case. I agree that {...} is useful.
{e1. ... . en} is equivalent to (OrderedCollection new "note no semicolon" add: (e1); ... add: (en); asArray) so it obviously CAN be eliminated. That doesn't mean it should be. #@ can be eliminated too: aNumber @ anotherNumber is equivalent to Point x: aNumber y: anotherNumber. That doesn't mean #@ should be eliminated.
The practical questions are - would eliminating this feature save more code in the parser and elsewhere than it would cost in all the code using it (remember, not all such code is known to SqC or anyone else)
- is ideological purity worth the loss of clarity?
- would it be feasible to make {} support a module?
At 8:49 +0200 9/30/01, ducasse stephane wrote: >#() is necessary because it is compiled statically and cannot not be >simulated by other construct. Storing #() in Stack frame is not really goo >but this is an implementation aspect. This is false. Any use of # can be eliminated by adding a class variable and a class method using lazy initialisation. For example, #( abc 'abc' 4 3.4 $r ) can be written as MyClass literal27 where MyClass class>>literal27 literal27 ifNil: [ literal27 := (OrderedCollection new add: 'abc' asSymbol; add: 'abc'; add: 4; add: 3.4; add: $r; asArray)]. ^literal27
Come to think of it, we could eliminate $r and 'abc' too: 'abc' is (String fromPacked: 6382179) allButFirst $r is Character value: 114.
So #(abc 'abc' 4 3.4 $r) can, by reductio ad absurdum, be replaced by MyClass class>>literal27 literal27 ifNil: [ literal27 := (OrderedCollection new add: (String fromPacked: 6382179) allButFirst asSymbol; add: (String fromPacked: 6382179) allButFirst; add: 4; add: 3.4; add: (Character value: 114); asArray)]. ^literal27
without any non-numeric literals at all.
This is hardly less ridiculous than removing {}.