Re: Clean Object Class Design -- Circle/Ellipse

Bob Badour wrote:

> "Richard MacDonald" <macdonaldrj_at_att.net> wrote in message

>>>
>>I know Smalltalk more than a little well.
>>And James Robertson (who knows a thing or
>>two about Smalltalk :-) agreed with me that you
>>were incorrect.
>>
>
> Big deal. Ask him to point to any Smalltalk language definition that defines
> "instance" as anything other than a variable which one can reference.
>

Object new

no variables there - one instance of Object. Variables in Smalltalk are either:

instance variables
class variables
class instance variables
Pool Dictionaries
method temporaries
block temporaries
method args
block args

do you see any variables in the expression above that creates an instance?

>
> According to the definition of the Smalltalk language an instance is a
> variable that one can reference. One cannot reference a value. Values are
> self-identifying.
>
>

Sigh. You are being extremely pedantic. Explain how your definitions relate to anything useful. Then, find me an actual use of them that relates to Smalltalk.

>
>>Why not simply argue your way out of the previous 3
>>sentences?
>>
>
> They were untrue. Anyone with access to a browser and Google can verify for
> themselves that Smalltalk defines "instance" as a variable that one can
> reference.

an instance is an object in memory - I may or may not have a variable that references it. Either way, why is it of any importance?

>
>
>
>>Oh I have lots of prejudices like we all do. I'm just exercising a
>>particular set now since your high horse is flimsy and you
>>deserve to be taken down a notch.
>>
>
> As I said previously when you posted the above: What you call my high horse
> is not at all flimsy. You expose much
> about yourself and your motives in the above statement. You expose,
> for instance, that you have no interest in learning or in
> communicating -- instead, you have an interest in attacking and
> destroying. I find little merit in your goals.
>
>

I find little merit in your definitions. They don't relate to solving any real problems in development; they don't relate to any useful information at all.  

>
>
>
Received on Sun Sep 30 2001 - 08:10:47 CEST