One thing that seems to be overlooked here is that messages in the inspector evaluation pane need not be sent to <self>. They can be sent to any of the variables listed or to any other known (e.g. global) object. Attempting to bias these messages towards self as the receiver could make other messages (with <self> as an argument or not referencing <self> at all) harder to enter and easier to screw up.

Cheers,
Bob


On Wed, 16 Feb 2000 11:07:03 -0500 "David Pennell" <dpennell at quallaby.com> wrote:
>> >   Which probably means I'm not really describing "implicit
>> >   self" at all, but some special type of workspace where
>> >   the creator plugs in the object that should receive
>> >   messages typed into it.
>
>I confess that I too was thrown by the need to include self in
>front of messages in an inspector's code pane.
>
>What if the 'self <message>' with <message> highlighted was 
>automatically added in the code pane of inspectors and explorers?
>
>The language stays consistent and the tools guide novices 
>towards understanding.