On Mon, 1 Nov 2010, Igor Stasenko wrote:

> On 1 November 2010 05:24, Levente Uzonyi <leves at elte.hu> wrote:
>> On Mon, 1 Nov 2010, Igor Stasenko wrote:
>>
>>
> [snip]
>>
>> There's #between:and: or you can use better formatting to improve
>> readability here:
>>
>>        ((v between: 8r141 and: 8r172) or: [
>>                v between: 16rE0 and: 16rF6 ] or: [

Oops, here's a misplaced bracket.

>>                v between: 16rF8 and: 16rFE ])
>>                        ifTrue: [ ^Character value: value - 8r40].
>>
>> or
>>
>>        ((8r141 <= v and: [ v <= 8r172 ]) or: [
>>                (16rE0 <= v and: [ v <= 16rF6 ]) or: [
>>                16rF8 <= v and: [ v <= 16rFE ] ] ])
>>                        ifTrue: [ ^Character value: value - 8r40].
>>
>>
> you know, i could do the same in order to improve readability:
>
>      8r141 <= v and: [ v <= 8r172 ] ;;
>       or: [ 16rE0 <= v and: [ v <= 16rF6 ] ;;
>         or: [ 16rF8 <= v and: [ v <= 16rFE ] ] ] ;;
>               ifTrue: [ ^Character value: value - 8r40].
>
> i don't agree that it is less readable. I think you must get used to
> it before judging.
> Think in a way 'what if i tought it before, would it fell to me less
> readable than with parens?'

I'm not saying that it's bad. I think it simply doesn't worth adding it. 
In the current Squeak trunk:

SystemNavigation default browseMethodsWithSourceString: '((((('.
0 methods

SystemNavigation default browseMethodsWithSourceString: '(((('.
9 methods
4 of them use superfluous parenthesis in mathematical expressions
2 of them use parenthesis in suboptimal boolean expressions
1 of them uses parenthesis instead of cascades
1 of them can be simplified by changing the order of the methods.
1 of them can be simplified by not trying to express everything in a 
single line

SystemNavigation default browseMethodsWithSourceString: '((('.
171 methods including all of the above

SystemNavigation default browseMethodsWithSourceString: '(('.
2127 methods including all of the above

There are 45499 methods in the image. The percentage of these methods is 
very low (0.38% for 3 or more parenthesis and 4.67% for 2 or more) and 
most of them can be simplified using the current syntax constructs.

About the typing benefits:
IMHO message chaining can only be useful for less than 5% of all methods. 
Of course you can use it when you only need a single parenthesis. 38.8% of 
all methods contain an opening parenthesis, but not all of them can be 
replaced with the message chain operator. Examples that can't be replaced:
#(foo).
#((foo)).
$(.
self foo: (self bar: baz).
(foo := bar) baz.
I think the actual number of methods where it can be used to make typing 
easier is about 10% of all methods.

If you still think it's useful, then add the feature to the compiler and 
make it work like underscores in selector/variable names.


Levente

>
>> Levente
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Best regards,
>>> Igor Stasenko AKA sig.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Best regards,
> Igor Stasenko AKA sig.
>
>