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private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

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LawsonEnglish

private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history
section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago: "...Smalltalk-80
added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object"
(except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties
and behavior with individual classes, ..."

Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to
understand, or is this an error?

Lawson

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Eliot Miranda-2

Re: [squeak-dev] private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Lawson English <[hidden email]> wrote:

In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago: "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" (except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties and behavior with individual classes, ..."

Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to understand, or is this an error?

"(except private instance variables)" looks like a dig or a jibe. I would have put it

"...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" paradigm by allowing classes to have their own specific state and behavior, ..."

Perhaps they were trying to say that because Smalltalk lacks private instance variables Smalltalk objects are not true objects, which is I suppose arguable. But it makes poor sense to state that private instance variables aren't objects; public inst vars aren't objects either.

best,

Eliot

Lawson

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Schwab,Wilhelm K

Re: private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

In reply to this post by LawsonEnglish

Right or wrong (not sure which), I have always thought of meta classes as breaking a recursion that arises when classes aspire to be objects that have all have a class. Is there such a thing as private instance variables? Could that mean the header, special behavior masks (a Dolphinism), etc.?

Independent of the truth, this **IS** something that mere mortals are not meant to understand :)

________________________________________
From: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Lawson English [[hidden email]]
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 4:59 PM
To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list; Pharo >> "[hidden email]"
Subject: [Pharo-project] private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history
section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago: "...Smalltalk-80
added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object"
(except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties
and behavior with individual classes, ..."

Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to
understand, or is this an error?

Lawson

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Pharo-project mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.gforge.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharo-project

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Bert Freudenberg

Re: [squeak-dev] private instance variables NOT objects? (Wikipedia)

In reply to this post by Eliot Miranda-2

On 25.10.2010, at 23:10, Eliot Miranda wrote:

On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Lawson English <[hidden email]> wrote:
In the Wikipedia entry on Smalltalk, there is this line in the history section, 3rd paragraph, added roughly a year ago: "...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" (except private instance variables) paradigm by associating properties and behavior with individual classes, ..."

Is this one of those esoteric details that mere mortals are not meant to understand, or is this an error?

"(except private instance variables)" looks like a dig or a jibe. I would have put it

"...Smalltalk-80 added [[metaclass]]es, to help maintain the "everything is an object" paradigm by allowing classes to have their own specific state and behavior, ..."

Perhaps they were trying to say that because Smalltalk lacks private instance variables Smalltalk objects are not true objects, which is I suppose arguable. But it makes poor sense to state that private instance variables aren't objects; public inst vars aren't objects either.

It's plain nonsense. Here's the edit that added the "private instance" modifier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Smalltalk&diff=prev&oldid=280020438

Someone should just correct it.

- Bert -

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