[squeak-dev] [OT] Multiple dispatch

Bert Freudenberg bert at freudenbergs.de
Wed Nov 26 22:04:47 UTC 2008


On 26.11.2008, at 22:38, Ties Stuij wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 3:54 AM, Jecel Assumpcao Jr <jecel at merlintec.com 
> > wrote:
>> Tony Garnock-Jones wrote:
>>> Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>>> Just a meta remark - I find it highly amusing how people dissect  
>>>> the
>>>> Gospel of Alan, even interpreting it literally. He must get quite a
>>>> chuckle from that ;)
>>>
>>> Well I hope so! :-)
>>
>> Given how happy he said he was to not have any disciples, he might be
>> less than amused to find out otherwise ;-)
>>
>> Going to the other extreme, where everyone's opinion is equally  
>> valid,
>> leads to situations like a guy explaining to me on comp.lang.lisp  
>> that
>> multiple dispatch is the most important feature of OOP and so CLOS  
>> and
>> C++ are true OO languages but Smalltalk is not.
>>
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_thread/thread/b2aa1842ccb7d7c/134456502780e63f?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=jecel#134456502780e63f
>
> I know I shouldn't react, but could you just dissect for me how Alan's
> post, either the one before or the one after the post of yourself you
> linked here, makes the point you're suggesting him to be making?
>
> Is it the 'I've no idea where I'm going with this.' part perhaps?


I know I shouldn't respond, but did you read further up in the thread,  
where Alan (Crowe) described how even the "simplest" things are  
impossible without multiple dispatch, which made him despise Smalltalk  
on his first encounter, an event he recites quite colorfully, with  
phrases like "I found this incomprehensibly awful. It completely  
destroyed the object metaphor. [...]  I fled in horror from this  
hideous, mutilating language."

- Bert -





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