[squeak-dev] Design Attitudes

Chris Cunnington smalltalktelevision at gmail.com
Fri Dec 17 19:19:22 UTC 2010


@Dale

I have to say your answer was pretty cool, as I learned some interesting 
things from it. I always like the historical perspective. The only part 
I'd comment on is this:

"As a software system evolves the assumptions that were made early on 
are no longer valid,"

To which I'd say: "Yea, but the code doesn't seem to go away." You'll notice that images never seem to get smaller.

(Yes, Cuis. I see you.)

I can remember several times this year when I was looking at Seaside code, particularly 2.6, where I was finally
understanding things that I thought were tied were actually separate and one was redundant. I'm thinking particularly
the evolution from the Builder to the Canvas. They were both there. One was unnecessary. And the way some projects
evolve, the classes proliferate creating a similar kind of pollution. Granted, if I had a solid grip on patterns,
I might not mind so much. But I don't think that invalidates my preference.

Let me be clear: I admire Lukas and his work. I think Gofer would be great in Squeak. I discovered, as a result of this
bust-up, his tutorials about PetitParser, which I'm going to spend time on. But I reserve the right to encounter code,
turn away from the computer, and scream. But that's just me. The more explicit we can be about our preferences, the
better I think we can all get along.

Chris




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