Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!crl!cateye!vernak From: vernak@cateye.LABS.TEK.COM (Verna Knapp) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: Access methods - New feature ? Message-ID: <1491@crl.LABS.TEK.COM> Date: 17 May 91 19:50:07 GMT References: <1991Apr21.221149.8057@vuse.vanderbilt.edu> <4753@m5.COM> <1264@argosy.UUCP> <4441.281d9cfe@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <1991May1.042952.6876@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@crl.LABS.TEK.COM Reply-To: vernak@crl.LABS.TEK.COM (Verna Knapp) Organization: Computer Research Laboratory, Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton OR Lines: 28 In article <1991May1.042952.6876@m.cs.uiuc.edu> johnson@cs.uiuc.EDU (Ralph Johnson) writes: >I bet Allan and Kent were arguing about this back in 1986 or 1987 >when they worked together at Tektronix. I take Kent's side, and >argue about it with Allan when I see him. The claim that all >variable access should be made through messages is nice in theory, >but the current Smalltalk environment gives the advantage to directly >accessing variables. > (Good argument eliminated here) >Ralph Johnson -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign I agree with Kent and Ralph on this one, and I have written several million bytes of Smalltalk code (Tektronix Smalltalk-80, PPS Smalltalk-80 through V2.5, and the OTI version of Smalltalk/V). At least half of this code has been maintenance and modification of existing code. I find that getter and setter methods actually slow down my understanding of existing code...I have to go an extra step or two to find out who is using them and why. I much prefer to modify code which uses direct access of variables. It is easier to see what is going on. I think this "change in only one place" mentality is actually a hangover from the days when we had to code without browsers. I found it quite useful when I was programming in assembly language. However, we have a much more powerful environment now, and that particular standard is a handicap, not an advantage. Verna Knapp vernak@crl.labs.tek.com