Ruby macros

I miss my Ruby macros (1st day in Squeak and I love it ... dislike the
camelCase tho'). Would this be the correct way to go about it?

RUBY:

class Class
  def has_many symbol
     ...generate getter/setter with Collection.new
  end
end

class House
  has_many :doors # just remove this line to "Undo" !
end

SQUEAK:

!Class methodsFor: 'macros' stamp: 'xy 7/1/2006 18:34'!
has_many: aSymbol
  ... generate getter/setter with (Collection new)
  ... record meta-data fact on the class itself ! !

undo_has_many: aSymbol
  ... check meta-data on the class
  ... remove getter/setter ! !


Any starting hints for:
(a) what would I put in the "...." :-)
(b) how to put these onto convenient popup menus?
(c) pointers to specific freely available stuff like these?

Many thanks.

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Hi,


i> (b) how to put these onto convenient popup menus?

right click on the desktop, to get the context menu. The entry at the
bottom is "personalize" which will bring up a browser on Preferences
class side method personalizeUserMenu:

This contains examples and explanations.

You first will have to solve your other questions but I can't help
there.

Cheers!

Herbert                            mailto:[hidden email]

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On Sat, 01 Jul 2006 21:33:04 -0700, itsme213 <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I miss my Ruby macros (1st day in Squeak and I love it ... dislike the  
> camelCase tho'). Would this be the correct way to go about it?

Not to hijack, but this is the second time I've run across the term  
"camelCase" in the past week after never running into it before. I always  
thought the term for caps in the middle was "infix"--but when I didn't see  
"infix" used anywhere in what I was searching, I began to wonder--have I  
made this up?
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Am 02.07.2006 um 11:03 schrieb Blake:

I guess so. I only know "infix" pertaining to "notation", in contrast  
to "prefix" and "postfix" notation.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infix_notation

I got to know the style as "mixed case", contrasting with "upper  
case" and "lower case". But "CamelCase" seems to have become  
ubiquitous, my personaI guess is because it's an insiders-joke,  
similar to "duck typing":

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CamelCase

- Bert -

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Am 02.07.2006 um 06:33 schrieb itsme213:

> I miss my Ruby macros (1st day in Squeak and I love it ... dislike  
> the camelCase tho').

To add a variable to a class, use

        someClass addInstVarName: 'myInstVar'.

To add an accessor with initialization code, compile one:

        someClass compile: 'myInstVar ^myInstVar ifNil: [myInstVar :=  
OrderedCollection new]'.

Similarly, use #removeInstVarName: and  #removeSelector: to remove  
what you added.

To automate the process, you could implement #noteCompilationOf:meta:  
to add/remove stuff automatically when some "spec" method was changed.

HOWEVER, such "magic" behavior is not considered good practice in  
Smalltalk. We do use code generation for repetitive tasks, but that  
is usually triggered not automagically, but invoked manually - we put  
the actual call in a comment that you can just double-click and  
execute. An example for this is the various "#fields" methods for  
ExternalStructure subclasses which include a "self defineFields"  
comment that should be executed when you changed the field definitions.

The reason for this non-magic is mostly because you're dealing with  
an evolving, live system that is not bootstrapped every time you run  
your app like in Ruby. After you let the system define the methods,  
you're free to change them in a browser to suit your needs. In  
Smalltalk, you're actually modifying the class, not a textual blue-
print that is executed later. That's a huge difference, it's hard to  
grasp when you come from a different environment, admittedly, but you  
need to get your head around it to become a proficient Smalltalker.  
Once you got enlightened, you'll wonder how you could ever have  
longed for editing a Smalltalk class in a text file ;-)

- Bert -

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but those Ruby macro's don't actually generate
getters and setters, rather, don't they just setup method_missing to
intercept those calls as if getters and setters actually existed?  Don't the
relationships in ActiveRecord do this as well?  If so, method_missing is the
same as Smalltalk's doesNotUnderstand:, so you can accomplish the same thing
in Smalltalk by overriding new on the class side and implementing methods
like hasOne: and hasMany: to setup a property hash in the object that
doesNotUnderstand: can check to handle messages.  As a newbie, I doubt
you're ready for hacking doesNotUnderstand:, yet, but it's certainly
possible to implement declarative relationships, quite easily in fact.

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