Thank you for the explanations. In particular reading the comment in
the Pragma class was helpful. I feel now much more comfortable with
the idea of using them. However I still think they are more related to
VM primitives and configuration issues. The menu is a GUI related
thing and having a MenuSpec feels somewhat more natural....

--Hannes

P.S. There are currently 854 methods which have a pragma in them.

On 4/26/10, Levente Uzonyi <leves at elte.hu> wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Apr 2010, Hannes Hirzel wrote:
>
>> Hello Philipp
>>
>> I took a fresh 4.1 image, updated it to 10012, and loaded
>> Morphic-phite.429.mcz.
>>
>> As the comments were fine I was quickly able to write an example (code
>> below).
>>
>> Then I had to choose 'Rebuild menus'
>>
>> It worked fine.
>> The question is now (see another thread by Bert) if we should go or
>> your solution (MenuSpec based) or the one by Steve Wessels (Pragma
>> based).
>
> It's Balázs Kósi who implemented the registration method with pragmas
> (http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-April/149534.html
> ).
>
>>
>> I do not feel too comfortable with pragmas yet whereas the MenuSpec is
>> something I easily understand. And in addition I have the gut feeling
>> that pragmas are meant for some more basic things (a kind of compiler
>> directive, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_%28programming%29)
>
> Pragmas in Squeak are not directives (though they can be used as
> directives) but a way to add metadata to a method. So the wikipedia page
> is irrelevant. If take a look at the class comment of Pragma, you'll
> feel more comfortable with them.
> (I think that we should convert all preferences to pragma-style. It could
> be a goal for 4.2.)
>
>>
>> Like Bert  I would like to see some discussion **on this issue, but
>> not too along as I would like to start using this feature asap.
>
> We should review both methods, consider the benefits and
> drawbacks and then make a decision.
>
>
> Levente
>
>>
>> Hannes
>>
>> ** The thread started by Bert at
>> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2010-April/149563.html
>>
>> -----------------------
>> Model subclass: #MyReallyNiceApplication
>> 	instanceVariableNames: ''
>> 	classVariableNames: ''
>> 	poolDictionaries: ''
>> 	category: 'MyMenuTests'!
>>
>> "-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- "!
>>
>> MyReallyNiceApplication class
>> 	instanceVariableNames: ''!
>>
>> !MyReallyNiceApplication class methodsFor: 'as yet unclassified'
>> stamp: 'hjh 4/26/2010 08:52'!
>> menuEntrySpecification
>> 	"Test to add another entyr in the Help menu"
>>
>>
>> ^MenuEntrySpec newForDockingBarFrom: (Dictionary newFromPairs: #(
>> 		#contents 'Hello?'
>> 		#location #('Help' 'a subMenu' 'another subMenu')
>> 		#target MenuMorph #selector #inform: #arguments #('Hello World!!')
>> 		))
>> ! !
>>
>>