The fact that method does not exist does not necessarily mean that object does not understand a message ;)
First of all you will never see the word message mentioned in those > languages you mentioned Indeed in C/Java/etc there is no such word message, that is why you can find word "method" in parentheses to the right from word "message" (actually second word in first sentence). In case of two other mentioned languages Smalltalk/Ruby word "message" is common. Do you agree that it is the case in Smalltalk? ;) For the Ruby I would like to refer to official documentation, especially method_missing hook (analogue of doesNotUnderstand: in Pharo). https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.0/BasicObject.html#method-i-method_missing (first sentence) Invoked by Ruby when *obj* is sent* a message it cannot handle*. Cheers, Alex On 8 December 2016 at 12:34, Dimitris Chloupis <kilon.al...@gmail.com> wrote: > First of all you will never see the word message mentioned in those > languages you mentioned > Second the word , understood, says nothing about the nature of the problem > to a beginner > > Is it that the method does not exist ? > Or is it that method exists but message does not ? > Or is it that the method does something it should not ? > Or is the VM that has problem executing the method ? > > > > > On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 at 11:27, Aliaksei Syrel <alex.sy...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> "Message(method) does not exist" happens in C/Java/etc when we *call* a >> method. >> "Message not understood by an object" happens in Smalltalk/Ruby when we >> *send* a message. >> >> I like this conceptual distinguishment between calling a method and >> sending a message. >> >> Cheers, >> Alex >> >
