"Les Tyrrell" <tyrrell at canis.uiuc.edu> wrote:
> 
> >
> > I am suspicious of "name spaces" altogether.  Look at VW and the costs
> > and delays involved in its move to name spaces.  It cost the use of the
> > refactoring browser for *years*.  It added a new complexity, and
 
> True, it isn't free... on the other hand, I had the Refactoring Tools working
> well with my modules in Oasis with just a few days of effort... how did I do
> this? Easy- brought the source code into an OasisModule, massaged it, and then
> exported it.  After that had been done, I was able to bring it into the
> "regular" image, where it now was aware of environments, and then use it once
> again, this time on itself ( actually, on a copy of itself in another
> module ).

Thanks for your description of how you modified the RB to work in a
modular environment.

I wasn't really attempting to say that I feared adding name spaces to
Squeak would prevent us from having a refactoring browser specifically. 
I was just using that as an example of the potential *costs* that adding
complexity could entail: Who would have thought that the apparently
clearly beneficial improvement to VW would have such unintended
consequences of eliminating the use of the RB for literally years plus
putting up a barrier causing many people to prefer to stick with VW 3 to
(a) avoid losing their RB, (b) avoid facing the new name space
complexity, (and to be fair the weird and confusing Cincom licensing
situation was a factor as well).  What a terrible price to pay for an
"improvement" that no one needed.  Well, at least I think we can argue
the benefits were not worth the costs, and further argue that name
spaces offer even fewer benefits in the even more open-source world of
Squeak where it is even easier for the "user" or the "vendor" to change
a class name in the rare case where there is a conflict.  I think it is
not *modules* which I am against; I think they are the route to an even
brighter future for Squeak.  What I think I am against is allowing
duplicate class names.

Of course, I may not understand the full picture.


-- Frank