On 3/11/2010 3:51 PM, Torsten Bergmann wrote:
> But my "Scoping? Why?" question was more a
>
>   - "Why should we do that, when other Smalltalk dialects dont?".
>   - "There is no scoping for this in others Smalltalk, so WHY should
>      Squeak artificially have it."
>   - "Why would we limit Squeak to allow it only to specific classes?"
>   - "Why should we go an own route again here?"

Isn't it obvious? Because Squeak has a history. And it's worth 
discussing if we want to break that history or not, and to what extent.

"All the other Smalltalks" do not use underscores as assignments so all 
of the above questions are besides the point. This discussion is about 
Squeak and should be about Squeak. Scoping provides a relatively easy 
way out since it allows you to benefit from using underscores in 
selectors while allowing others to use underscores as assignments in 
their respective subsystems.

BTW, just for the records, my *personal* opinion is expressed in 
Croquet: Forbid underscore altogether.

> I stand my original suggestion/changeset which
>
>   a) either disallows selectors with underscore for the whole image
>       ->  turn preference off
>
>   b)  ->  turn preference on
>      fully allows one to file in and use code from other Smalltalk
>      systems or implement the use case where you need an underscore
>      in a selector in whatever class you require
>
> This would reduce the balkanization of Smalltalk (see [1]) a little
> bit and allow for easy exchange and freedom in implementation.
>
> If one really mixes "underscore assignment" and "underscores in selectors"
> then I would rather see x_ 1 converted to x := 1 or at least x _ 1
>
> Hey it's all code and changeable! Especially when we have tools
> like RefactoringBrowser, Rewrite Tool, ... and a dynamic system
> that is able to tell us where such code exists.

Having a working implementation of a tool that that automatically 
rewrites underscores into assignments on fileIn and MC package install 
would go a VERY long way to alleviate my concerns. In fact, even a 
prototype that illustrates the concept might be enough for now because 
it may encourage others to help.

Cheers,
   - Andreas