Namespace, Package, Classbox and Local Rebinding

Lex Spoon lex at cc.gatech.edu
Sat Apr 17 19:42:05 UTC 2004


Alexandre Bergel <bergel at iam.unibe.ch> wrote:
> Any comment appreciated.

It all sounds very interesting.  Can you please expand on a few
high-level questions?


Importantly, do you think you have achieved a complete solution for
namespace issues?  Do they help with:

	1. Letting independent modules use the same short names for a class?
	
	2. Letting code use short names almost exclusively, instead of having
to fully qualify a lot of things?
	
	3. Letting users start coding quickly?  e.g., how much overhead is
there to create a dumb little subclass of Morph that responds to button
clicks by opening a web browser?
	
	4. Letting users manage the system after it has been running a while
and acreating any gunk that #3 will impose?
	

	
I do not see a way to import namespaces as a whole.  This seems bad. 
How do I write code that uses Tweak classes, from outside of Tweak,
without having to fully qualify all of my references?  Am I forced to
import one class at a time?  Or am I expected to write all Tweak-using
code inside a Tweak namebox?  What if I want classes from two separate
class boxes?


What do you mean that they help with deployment?  I am not aware of any
deployment problem in Squeak that can be addressed at the language
level.  So I guess I am asking: what do you mean of deployment? 
Deployment of what and to whom?


I am sure I will think of other questions, but those seem like a start.



-Lex



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