I think that an object's behavior should not be constrained or conditioned by
the way it was created. I use a literal expression to create an object with a
known starting value, if you will. After that, I should be able to manipulate
like any other object of the same kind. A string should behave like a string
whether it was created from a literal or some other means.

Having constants which are immutable seems natural. I use them to build more
complex objects which are mutable at their higher level but not the "atomic"
level.

Is the present behavior of literals for the sake of Smalltalk or the
Smalltalker?

-Mark Bailey