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From: dmhouck@c00012-118dan.eos.ncsu.edu (DAVID MICHAEL HOUCK)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: recognizing instances in Smalltalk/V
Keywords: recognizing instance vars
Message-ID: <1990Aug29.164043.392@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 29 Aug 90 16:40:43 GMT
Sender: news@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: dmhouck@c00012-118dan.eos.ncsu.edu (DAVID MICHAEL HOUCK)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Lines: 25


	I'm using Smalltalk/V and am trying to refer to a named instance
variable by way of a string by the same name.  I have tried defining a
method with the message selector identical to the instance variable that
answers the instance variable. For example say my instance variable is
named webster. I defined the method

webster
	^webster

I did this so that when i wanted to access the dictionary webster (an
instance var) in another method of the same class with the string
'webster' i would be referring to that instance var. I should also
mention that i am storing the string in another instance var by way of
selection in a window.  To access the instance webster i have tried such
things like:

     <var holding string 'webster'> asSymbol asociationsDo: ...
     self perform: (<var holding string 'webster'> asSymbol)
associationsDo: ...

but so far i have not been successful in referring to the instance var
webster yet.  But i'm not giving up.  Can any of you experts out there
help me out here. Any advice would be appreciated.  Direct e-mail can be
sent to houck@eceugs.ncsu.edu if you don't want to post the response. Thanks.