Etymology of #perform:?

Smalltalk is based on message sending, but sending a method is called #perform:
 rather than #send:? When I read aloud the code is it "perform a message" or
 "perform a method", both seem to be wrong. The first since, well, methods are
 sent not performed. And the second since, well, the argument is a message and a
 not a method. What is the etymology or rational for this? Maybe if one of the
 old Smalltalkers (or Marcus with his awesome knowledge of Smalltalk history)
 can elaborate on this?

--AA


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2010/1/12 Adrian Kuhn <[hidden email]>:
If you analyze messages pattern, you see there is no sender but only a
receiver...
Thus, it's obviously not #send:, you don't tell the receiver to send,
only to receive...
The receiver receives and then perform a method indeed.

Another point of view would have been thisContext send: aMessage to:
receiver. But it's not how we write things.

Nicolas

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On Tue, 12 Jan 2010, Adrian Kuhn wrote:

> Smalltalk is based on message sending, but sending a method is called #perform:
> rather than #send:? When I read aloud the code is it "perform a message" or

You don't send a method, but a message. The message contains a method and
optionally arguments.

> "perform a method", both seem to be wrong. The first since, well, methods are
> sent not performed. And the second since, well, the argument is a message and a
> not a method. What is the etymology or rational for this? Maybe if one of the

The argument is a selector which is the name of the method that should be
performed.


Levente

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