> costas menico wrote:
>
>
>>It doesnt make sense to have one because asCharacter takes a character
>>and answers its ascii representation, an integer.
>
>
> (I'm assuming that wrong-way-around conversion in the above is a typo.)
>
> The #as* type methods generally come in a "ring" of mutually convertible
> objects.  E.g. consider asArray, asSet, asOrderedCollection, etc.  In these
> cases the #as* methods allow you to treat arrays, etc, similarly without
> worrying about the specific classes because #asXXX will convert it for you /if
> necessary/.  That pattern would break if, for instance, Array did not implement
> #asArray or if it did not answer self.  The #as* methods aren't really about
> /converting/ one object into another, they are about /hiding the differences
> between them/.
>
> Now one could make an argument that Integers and Characters aren't
> intra-convertible in this way.  If you take that line then integer>>asCharacter
> should not exist, and neither should Character>>asInteger.
>
> OTOH one could say that Integers and Characters are almost the same since (in
> many contexts) a Character can be identified with its code-punt.  If you see it
> that way, then Integer>>asCharacter and Character>>asInteger are fine, but then
> you'd expect to find Integer>>asInteger and Character>>asCharacter implemented
> too.  In the current Dolphin code base, the second of these is missing.
>
>     -- chris