Hi bob

don't be too harsh with bill this is nice guy. I raised this discussion 
(as usual;))
long time ago at least one or two year and I'm still here ;). I think 
that this is a bit
stupid for squeak to be not compatible with other
smalltalk for such a detail. It would be good that the fileout convert 
_ into :=

I did that with the prettyprinter and fileouting all the versions of 
squeak I could find for
preparing some versions analysis and yes i can do it but recompiling 
all the method with prettyprinter.

For me the fact that the fact that there is not a one one 
correspondance between the glysh and the ascii
representation is not really good. Then the glyph does not exist in all 
the fonts size....so I got
problem with the pictures of my book so I put := everywhere.

Note that the glyph looks really 70, this is good like that people 
knows that Squeak is old techonology

Now seriously for me I'm fed up to see good software only running on X, 
Z or Y Smalltalk dialects. So I like
when people make the effort to have dialect independent framework 
(SIXX, YAXO ported to dolphin, GLORP, SWAZOO).
I think that we should try to simplify their life and you should not 
tell me that typing one instead of
two keys make a difference.

Now I'm not expert but I still think that this is an important point.
Stef



On mercredi, novembre 20, 2002, at 08:23  pm, Bob Arning wrote:

> On Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:36:49 -0500 "Bill Schwab" <schwabw at sprynet.com> 
> wrote:
>> ---------------------------------
>> Just curious, but do you know how easy this would be to fix for your
>> own use? You want to see underscores rather than an arrow? Just do it.
>> ---------------------------------
>>
>> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see how a one-line change 
>> is
>> going to correct the real problem, which is that $_ appears in the
>> sources as an assignment.  Put another way, is there an easy way to 
>> tell
>> which underscores to show as an arrow (or promote to :=) and which to
>> leave alone?  I'm not the first to mention this, and arguments always
>> come down to aesthetics, not how easy it would be to correct.
>
> Depending on the precise problem you want to solve, I think there are 
> several possible solutions:
>
> - Change the glyph in all fonts to look like an underscore. Train 
> yourself to remember "the underscore is a valid assignment operator", 
> which probably isn't that hard.
> - Change only some fonts. Use un-modified fonts where Smalltalk code 
> is likely (like a browser window). Use the modified ones where seeing 
> the underscore is important, like a list of file names, maybe.
> - Use a pretty-printer to convert all assignment operators to your 
> favorite whenever you view a method. You just need to tweak 
> AssignmentNode>>printOn:indent: to get the desired effect.
> - A variation on the above: do it once for every method in the system 
> and save the result.
>
>> IMHO, this is one of those "little things" that helps people inclined 
>> to
>> dismiss Smalltalk quite happy.  I urge the community to not make it so
>> easy for them (and therefore more difficult no those trying to expand
>> Smalltalk's use).
>
> Do you actually know some of these people? If they walk away from 
> Squeak because they don't like the look of our underscores, I wonder 
> just how useful they would be in the long run.
>
> Cheers,
> Bob
>
>
Dr. Stéphane DUCASSE (ducasse at iam.unibe.ch) 
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/
  "if you knew today was your last day on earth, what would you do
  different? ... especially if, by doing something different, today
  might not be your last day on earth" Calvin&Hobbes