[squeak-dev] Syntax error in MC package (_ problem?)

Ross Boylan ross at biostat.ucsf.edu
Sun Sep 20 03:00:56 UTC 2009


I tried to load SoundsLike-RJT.2 from 
MCHttpRepository
    location: 'http://www.squeaksource.com/SoundsLike'
    user: ''
    password: ''

and got a syntax error in the imported code.  There doesn't appear to be
any way to proceed.

The error show in the method pane like this:
testProcessCxNothing more expected ->_1
	dmsc inputKey: 'abcdefg'.
	self should: [ dmsc inputKey = 'ABCDEFG' ].

I think the problem is that the method is called
testProcessCx_1
and the underscore is getting interpreted as assignment.

This raises a couple of issues.  I'm in a squeak3.10 image.

First, can I do something so that _ will be accepted as a regular
character, at least for the import and perhaps beyond?  I ran into this
earlier; I wanted to use _ as a way of indicating  a method was private
(e.g., _foo is for consumption of the class only), and that didn't work.

Second, what is the preferred way to indicate assignment, _ or := ?
In the past, I remember _ was automatically converted to := if you typed
it, but this is not happening any more.

Third, given something in squeaksource that needs a fix up, how does one
do that?  This is not a question about how to edit the code once I have
a hold of it; it is a question about everything that surrounds that.  I
noticed when I tried to browse the package that things looked odd; I
suspect this also resulted from the parse failure.  It looks as if I do
have the mcz file in my package-cache, but I'm not sure how to make a
new one.  I also am not sure if uploading the fixed version to
squeaksource is advisable, or even possible.

Thanks.
Ross Boylan




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