Mark Mayfield wrote:
> 
> Question...
> 
> When discussing a method (as in an example within a book), should one refer
> to the method's message category, or to the method's method protocol?
> 
> I know a browser organizes methods into message categories, but I've also
> heard the term method protocol.

I tend to prefer the term "message category" (or "method category") for a few reasons:

1. Its meaning is more obvious to beginners.  A message category is simply a grouping of messages (methods).

2. It's a simple category in the same sense that a class category is a category.  There's no extra information in the category other than the methods that are in it (a message category is not even an object).

3. The term "protocol" might make more sense if you're dealing with something more than a simple grouping... for example, I think it's Dolphin (?) Smalltalk that uses the term Protocol to mean something similar to Java Interfaces.

- Doug Way
  dway at riskmetrics.com