[squeak-dev] Re: PlusTools and Tweak

Andreas Raab wrote:
>I don't see any dependencies between SystemNavigation and Morphic (at
>least in the Croquet images). What makes you think that the former
>depends on the latter?

<general confusion>
I guess it's just my general confusion trying to unravel the toolset,
the related models, and the fact that SystemNavigation is referenced
as a method at the Object instance level.  The only reason I would
think that the SystemNavigation methods would be implemented at that
level would be so that specific methods of the SystemNavigation
instance would be overloaded by the current toolset context, similar
to the way a model is used.  And yet I don't see any reference to
which methods should be overloaded as opposed to those that would be
private or non-toolset dependent.  The fact that the structure of some
of the tools is different between PlusTools, the standard Tweak tools,
and the other toolsets in the Croquet image doesn't help my general
confusion level.  It's just taking me a while to sort through what's
what.
</general confusion>

<weak defense of earlier statement>
Your comment makes it sound like SystemNavigation should be
UI-independent.  If that is truly the case, then I think there are a
few little things to be cleaned up there.

The SystemNavigation instance methods often reference the Cursor,
which I guess is a really a Display-related thing and not Morphic.
But maybe those references don't really belong if SystemNavigation is
supposed to be UI-independent.  I am presently trying to sort out the
#implementorsOfIt and #sendersOfIt methods in the CPluggableText class
and find in the SystemNavigation method
#browseMessageList:name:autoSelect:that a MessageSet instance is
created.  MessageSet looks to be part of a whole different toolset
which has some Morphic stuff in it.  Maybe that's where I went astray,
and this should really work indirectly through the toolset instead of
using MessageSet directly, as I see that there is also a
MessageSetPlus class.
</weak defense of earlier statement>

<trying to sound positive>
I am plowing ahead and just having a little difficulty keeping
everything straight.
</trying to sound positive>

Thanks for your input,

Dave

David Faught wrote:
Let's try to resolve this first. SystemNavigation is a set of functions
that were originally associated with other places. In the Squeak 3.4
days for example you would say "SomeClass browseAllCallsOn: #foobar"
instead of "SystemNavigation new browseAllCallsOn: #foobar from:
SomeClass". Unfortunately the transfer of functionality wasn't done to
maximize usability but rather more in a mechanical way which leads to
some conceptual dissonances. However, outside of this SystemNavigation
(at least in the Croquet images) ties directly into ToolSet - which is
the abstraction over the different varieties of tools (including PlusTools).

Indeed, this *should* be cleaned up. If you have patches towards that
effect I'd be happy to review those and fold them into Croquet.

> <trying to sound positive>
> I am plowing ahead and just having a little difficulty keeping
> everything straight.
> </trying to sound positive>

Yup, please let me know how your work is coming along.

Cheers,
   - Andreas