... > > The corollary being, if you make it simple for people to continue > > maintaining the old dialect, you are more likely to get code ported > > to > > your dialect. > > I agree with that. > To be compatible with these goals, I think my proposition just needs > to be updated a bit. > I'm still in favor of rules to transform ANSI code to Pharo code. The > point is that we should not force the user to update their code base. > The rule-cased approach is compatible with that if you transform ANSI > > code when it gets loaded in the image.
No, it's not! Rewriting the code in this case is actually a very bad thing. The problem is that when you port changes done in, say, Pharo back to, say, "The other cool Smalltalk" you have rewrite everything back (or things will break). This is not what you want to spend you time on. So either don't enforce code rewriting in this case or be honest and say openly "I do not care, not my problem" :-) And no, I'm not theorizing, I'm talking out of my every-two-weeks-or=-so-pain I'm suffering last year or so. Best, Jan
