On Sep 3, 2005, at 1:42 PM, stéphane ducasse wrote:
>
> A trait is not a run-time entity, just a first class method category.

As I was saying to Daniel a few days ago, I'd love to see tools that  
really emphasized this view of traits.  I want creating a trait to  
feel almost exactly like creating a method category: you should just  
be able to choose "new trait" from the method category column of a  
browser, give it a name, and see it show up there with the other  
categories.  Until you add the same trait to some other class, it  
should be exactly as if it was just a category, just with different  
naming conventions.  I should be able to drag a category/trait from  
the method category column of one class to another, to share the  
trait.  The extra pieces of metadata for a particular application of  
a trait - aliases, removals - can appear in the text pane of the  
browser when I select that trait in the category column, and be  
editable there, rather than being shoved into the class definition.   
I think this would be a much lower-impact, more familiar way of  
integrating traits into the traditional Smalltalk mindset and  
workflow than treating them as part of the inheritance hierarchy, as  
they are now.

Avi