Method category tags

> Hi
>
> In a recent post, Matthew Fulmer explained how categories work... and
> I don't really see why they exist this way... Can someone explain me
> (historical reason, etc...)?
>
> >"In Squeak, Classes are objects, methods are objects, but
> >categories are not. Categories are implemented interestingly.
> >See Categorizer and subclasses. Categorizer stores two lists of
> >Symbols; one is the list of all the categories, the other is the
> >list of all the class names or method names, arranged so that
> >all the names in the first part of the list are in the first
> >category, the next few methods are in category 2, and so forth.
> >So all the categories are is a symbol in a special list, with
> >the mapping to classes and methods is maintained by other
> >entities.
> >
> >How would changing this work? Mostly, Browser would have to be
> >changed significantly. OmniBrowser would probably be easier to
> >adapt, but I have only worked with Browser, so I cannot comment."
>
>
> I don't mind method categories are not first class but I find quite
> annoying and limited to use them (there is not even a list of usual
> categories except in the class side...).

> My wish is I'd like to define categories as tags so I can attach
> several to method. This could be interesting to declare private method
> and classes extensions...
>
> Would it be possible and would you find useful to have that
> possibility ? Maybe we could use a pragma like syntax.
>
> AClass>>aMethod
> <category: #private category: #accessing category: #toRefactor
> extension: myPackage trait: TPureBehavior>
> ....
>
> Matthew also said we could adopt Namespace/Category like Gulik's work on
> namespaces, as Namespaces are much like reified Categories.
>
> What do you think ? Am I the only one annoyed the way method
> categories works (maybe another newbie reflex and maybe I don't get
> the power of categories the way they are...).

> Power? Heh. Categories are just to document the intended use of
>  the methods by association. I wouldn't want them to be in
>  syntax; that would make recategorizing slow. The usual way to
>  change the category of a method is by drag/drop, which beats
>  typing something comment-like.