On Mon, 21 Jan 2002, Noel J. Bergman wrote:

[snip]
> On the other hand, there are other patterns that can be used in differen
> situations.  For example, why could not the String>>asX methods be
> String:>>as: X, instead?  Something like: ^X class fromString: self.  Now we
> don't have to pollute String.

Because the use of #as: methods is slightly harder and more
counterintuitive than #asFoo methods? Part of this might just be not being
used to it, but there's definitely the precedence issue.

Actually, I tend to prefer a little pollution of classes to horkiness in
my statements.

I suspect that that's why lots of folks prefer #filestream type methods to
Filestream class>>on:, etc.

Perhaps the right, if slow, solution is to generalize the mechanism so
that #asFoo expands/is DNU trapped to Foo fromReceiverType: receiver.

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.