3.9 underscore still there?

Bill Schwab BSchwab at anest.ufl.edu
Fri Oct 27 23:34:20 UTC 2006


Lex,

First, the 3.7 stable universe idea is a good one.

Asking me to allow the old code to run is an odd way to put it: I have
absolutely no power over it.  However, it might be interesting to see
how much of that code passes even a basic smoke test.  I might be
pleasantly surprised, but given the complaints I have read over time re
things like the Canvas protocol[*], I suspect that much of the code is
broken over far worse things than underscores.

Please keep in mind that my most emphatic request is to promote Ian's (I
believe) fix, for underscores in all but the first slot in a selector,
to part of the mainstream release so that it will get maintained as the
compiler evolves.  I am not aware that it breaks any code.

I disagree with your assessment that I am suggesting a change for legacy
reasons.  Quite the opposite.  I am suggesting it for compatibility with
other dialects and ANSI compliance.  I submit that yours is the legacy
argument.  And it is one legacy of Squeak which should not be
celebrated.  Hijacking the underscore for single-character assignment
was a mistake; the same capability could and should have been provided
within the editor, keeping the compiler and sources clean.  Please allow
that to be corrected, albeit at a pace that keeps associated discomfort
to a minimum.

Sincerely,

Bill


[*] I'm simply stating that my imperfect memory of unmoderated comments
gives the impression that it has been a moving target.  The less
accurate that statement is, the happier I get - within reason.


Lex Spoon:

There is a lot of legacy code not even in the image that uses
underscore for assignment. Please allow this code to keep working.
We should not break massive amounts of code just for legacy reasons.
At the very very least, allow such legacy code to file in.

If you or anyone have a parsing hack you would like to try, e.g. to
allow it in identifiers while still allowing it for assignment, a
great sample set would be the 3.7 stable universe. This is 200
packages worth of Squeak content, quite a lot of which uses _ for
assignment. If your idea works there without breaking anything, then
it is probably okay.

The download is here:

http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/3835





Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bills at anest4.anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029




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