Hola kids,

As a person who uses Squeak as his desktop, I'm always adding little
things.  Lately, I added some kb shortcuts to open a browser window (a Mac
OS browser via applescript or failling that, Scamper) and to open a
browser with a google search on the highlighted text in a PTM.

This led to an email I was writing about a way to get a Services system
(like in NeXTSTEP and now OS X) into Squeak. Adding lines to
ParagraphEditor>>#initialize*Shortcuts is all fine and good for a hack,
but it isn't scalable for anything outside of one dude's tinkering. But a
Services system is just part of something bigger- componentish objects in
Squeak.

How can we make things more pluggable? Modules don't seem the answer- I've
been told that modules must hold at least an entire class, you could just
have a new version of a method (ala "Applications" [eq. to squeak modules]
in IBM VisualAge Smalltalk).  As an aside: Is this really the case?  Would
it not be possible to create a module, for example, that simply added a
new category onto Object that provided a component protocol?

Regards,
Aaron

  Aaron Reichow  ::  UMD ACM Pres  ::  http://www.d.umn.edu/~reic0024/
"a system based on exchanging products inevitably channels wealth to a few, and
   no governmental change will ever be able to correct that."  ::  daniel quinn