The only objects whose opinion differ on what second should answer are
SequenceableCollection, but that's a case of false polymorphism ;)

Le jeu. 11 mars 2021 à 16:22, Nicolas Cellier <
nicolas.cellier.aka.nice at gmail.com> a écrit :

> With asString, we ask the object itself to convert as String. It can very
> well have its own idea how to do it. In case of second, it's a different
> thing, it acts on behalf of another object, without using the slightest
> ounce of own identity...
>
> Le jeu. 11 mars 2021 à 11:22, Thiede, Christoph <
> Christoph.Thiede at student.hpi.uni-potsdam.de> a écrit :
>
>> > Grammar rules apart, if second has to answer a unit of 1 second, why
>> the hell send such message to 5? Why not Time second for example?
>>
>> Just syntactic sugar, similar to #asString instead of "String newFrom:
>> ..." Iirc Kent Beck disrecommended the idea in general, but I like its
>> convenience. :-)
>>
>> Best,
>> Christoph
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *Von:* Squeak-dev <squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org> im
>> Auftrag von Nicolas Cellier <nicolas.cellier.aka.nice at gmail.com>
>> *Gesendet:* Donnerstag, 11. März 2021 08:16:51
>> *An:* The general-purpose Squeak developers list
>> *Betreff:* Re: [squeak-dev] Explorer / Inspector bug?
>>
>> Grammar rules apart, if second has to answer a unit of 1 second, why the
>> hell send such message to 5? Why not Time second for example?
>>
>> Le jeu. 11 mars 2021 à 02:25, David T. Lewis <lewis at mail.msen.com> a
>> écrit :
>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 09, 2021 at 01:47:49PM +0000, Thiede, Christoph wrote:
>>> > > "I want a two second delay" is perfectly valid :D
>>> >
>>> > Maybe a native English speaker can correct me but afaik, in the grammar
>>> > dependency tree of "two-second delay", "two-second" is not an
>>> independet
>>> > noun but a pre-modifying phrase only. Shall we really start to support
>>> > even more different types of words in an object-oriented language like
>>> > Smalltalk? Imho, substantives and verbs are already enough. :-)
>>> >
>>>
>>> I am a native Engish speaker with a poor understanding of grammar, so
>>> that makes me a good person to attempt an answer ;-)
>>>
>>> The use of singular "second" or plural "seconds" may depend on the
>>> context of the expression, but in any case if I were to hear someone
>>> say "five second" I would understand it to refer to five seconds, not
>>> one second. If I were to try to enforce correct English (is there such
>>> a thing? of course not), then I might try to treat "five second" as
>>> an error. But we do not really need to enforce English syntax rules,
>>> and in this case it is more important for the expression to do the
>>> right thing.
>>>
>>> So for me as an English speaker, I overlook the difference between
>>> "second" and "seconds" and I prefer to have the expression do what
>>> I expect in either case.
>>>
>>> For this reason, it makes sense to me for #second and #seconds to
>>> be treated as synonyms.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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