Squeak and Namespaces

stephane ducasse stephane.ducasse at free.fr
Thu Nov 30 15:01:32 UTC 2006


>
> Actually, IMHO import lists like in Java or Python do not fit  
> Smalltalk at all. Sure, people want to use unqualified names in  
> their code. But in those file-centric environments, you know  
> exactly where to look to identify which local name refers to which  
> global name - you scroll up a few pages to the import list. Also,  
> these imports always travel with the code using them, because it's  
> in the same file.

This confirms why I have doubts about import. But this is intriguing.
don't you think that if package were first class they could be the  
compilation unit and get import attached to them.

> Not so in Smalltalk. As has been noted elsewhere, the compilation  
> unit is a method in a class. Consequently, you need either fully  
> qualified names, or have class-based imports. We already have a way  
> to express the latter (class pools [*]), and we may like to have a  
> way for the former. That's all.

Stef



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