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From: jans@tekcrl.TEK.COM (Jan Steinman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Browsers
Message-ID: <2070@tekcrl.TEK.COM>
Date: Mon, 9-Nov-87 13:20:44 EST
Article-I.D.: tekcrl.2070
Posted: Mon Nov  9 13:20:44 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Nov-87 21:46:48 EST
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 31

<<<... one of the reasons O-O systems are so hard to take advantage of is the 
steep learning curve...  I think a Browser, which understands the class 
hierarchy, is vital to reducing the time it takes to become productive using an 
O-O system.
...
2)  What are the most important capabilities of a Browser?>>>

You hit the nail on the head with the phrase "understands the class hierarchy". 
 To me, this does not mean the traditional Xerox LV2.0 Browser, but a tool that 
is capable of showing the developer all the messages, throughout the 
inheritance chain, that an object is capable of fielding.  The Browser that 
many of us have been using in-house for some time (which will be available in 
Tek Smalltalk "Real Soon Now") has two additional one-line subViews. One allow 
you to specify how far up the inheritance chain you wish to look for methods, 
the other shows which class actually implements any selected method.  Other 
niceties include being able to accept a method into a superclass, and being 
able to look at overridden methods up the superclass chain.

For me, this revolutionizes subclassing.  No more ugly suprises, when you find 
out from users that superclass methods break your subclass.  No more lengthy 
searches to make sure you've overridden all the things you should -- especially 
tedious for superclasses that tend to live in different categories, like 
Collections!  No more of the mental discipline required to keep from modifying 
a method in more than one Browser, as happens when you resort to the inevitable 
"spawn hierarchy".

:::::: Software Productivity Technologies    ---    Smalltalk   Project ::::::
:::::: Jan Steinman N7JDB	Box 500, MS 50-470	(w)503/627-5881 ::::::
:::::: jans@tekcrl.TEK.COM	Beaverton, OR 97077	(h)503/657-7703 ::::::
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