2013/1/30 Frank Shearar <[email protected]>

> On 30 January 2013 22:20, Nicolas Cellier <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> In st-80 these were protocols and the name make you think of it
>> differently.
>> If you want to continue thinking of it in term of category, then I
>> understand your miss-conception.
>> I'm curious to know when the term category was introduced...
>> Maybe with Monticello where it means 'Package'?
>> Clever hacks sometimes are not that clever...
>>
>> Nicolas
>>
>
> Sure. I also remember people talking about "the protocol of Foo", meaning
> the set of messages that Foo understood. That's how the Objective-C and
> Clojure people understand the term, for what it's worth.
>
> Sometimes the those who came before named things poorly... :)
>
>
I don't know what you think was named poorly...
I just wonder, in term of communicating by sending messages, what is the
best name for defining the set of messages an object can understand?
Category or protocol ;)

Nicolas

frank
>
>
>
>> 2013/1/30 Norbert Hartl <[email protected]>
>>
>>>
>>> Am 30.01.2013 um 22:03 schrieb Nicolas Cellier <
>>> [email protected]>:
>>>
>>> First, these are not categories. categories are for classes.
>>> These are protocols.
>>>
>>>
>>> Well, that's one reason I took the term "uncategorized". If I take the
>>> context menu in the category (!) pane I see
>>>
>>>
>>> So it looks to me that pharo has the notion of categories for organizing
>>> methods.
>>>
>>>
>>> A protocol is like an interface, or you can view it as services
>>>
>>> offered by the instances of this class...
>>> For example take a look at Number you have
>>> 'comparing', is a very generic service, so that any object can be in a
>>> set
>>> numbers have this property to have full order, so they offer a bit
>>> more than = and hash
>>> 'printing' a very generic Object protocol too for interacting
>>> (inspectors, debuggers...)
>>> 'arithmetic' is some more specialized service offered by numbers
>>> 'mathematical functions' too.
>>>
>>> The category is a service for humans made by humans. The methods in e.g.
>>> "comparing" would work the same without a category. I think we can agree on
>>> the fact that relying on categories in code is mostly something not
>>> desirable.
>>>
>>> If the classification helps a lot, IMHO it's not only related to the
>>> number of messages.
>>> It helps to declare/discover which service will be offered, and those
>>> can be completely transversal (printing vs comparing).
>>>
>>> 'private' has a value too, as there is no service to expect here...
>>>
>>> So I have to disagree. I see these as essentials.
>>>
>>>  I did not decline that categories _can_ be useful and in fact they are.
>>> I'm also inclined to say that it is a good thing having all methods
>>> categorized in the distributed pharo image. So lint rules and such testing
>>> is good. But at the same time I don't see a point in enforcing it for
>>> everyone by choosing a stronger or even insulting term (at that point I
>>> decided to reply) for uncategorized methods.
>>>
>>> Norbert
>>>
>>>
>>> Nicolas
>>>
>>> 2013/1/30 Norbert Hartl <[email protected]>:
>>>
>>>
>>> Am 29.01.2013 um 16:57 schrieb Stéphane Ducasse <
>>> [email protected]>:
>>>
>>> Hi guys
>>>
>>> I spend my time recategorizing methods.
>>>
>>> I would like the change the intention of 'as yet unclassified' because
>>> this is a PLAGUE.
>>> It is like throwing papers on the floor.
>>> So we should have a different name to indicate that it should be fixed.
>>>
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>> 'you are a dirty programmer - change me'
>>>
>>>
>>> To be honest I have problems understanding why method categorization is
>>> so important. Often I don't care a single bit about categories because I
>>> don't understand them. I often categorize just to make lint happy :)
>>> What is the use? Declaring usage patterns? Declaring visibility? Use as
>>> method extensions marker? anything you like just classify? I can understand
>>> that it can help making the access of certain methods of a class easier.
>>> But that is particular true for classes with a lot of methods. Most of the
>>> classes are rather small. In most of my own developments I would consider
>>> most huge classes a design problem in my code. So I would try to fix that.
>>> And finally it is not easy to learn about them because the browser is
>>> not helping. If you browse through the methods of a class the category pane
>>> doesn't get updated. So even if I want to learn by getting used to them it
>>> is hard.
>>>
>>> I would make the none categorized term weaker by naming it
>>> "uncategorizied" so at least I have the change to deliberately not
>>> categorizing my methods without being annoyed by someones opinion about
>>> what is essential.
>>>
>>> my 2 cents,
>>>
>>> Norbert
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

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