Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!haven!mimsy!tove.umd.edu!folta
From: folta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Smalltalk (maybe only Smalltalk/V) quest.
Summary: Answer discovered (Thanks))
Message-ID: <17288@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 89 01:54:35 GMT
References: <17280@mimsy.UUCP> <14607@louie.udel.EDU>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP (Wayne Folta)
Distribution: usa
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, gs
Lines: 26

You were correct (and I stumbled onto the answer seconds before checking
the news again.)  A working method is:

|s f|
s := Prompter prompt: 'enter line' default: ''.
f := Bag new.
s do: [:c | c isLetter ifTrue: [f add: c asLowerCase]].
^'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' asArray collect: [:c | f occurrencesOf: c]


The asArray did the trick.  Am I understanding this construct correctly?
Evidently, when a string responds to collect: it insists on building
another string, which cannot--of course--contain integers.  So, using
the asArray, I am "casting" (to use a C term) the string to an array,
so that it responds correctly (for my purposes) to the collect:.  Is this
nearly correct?  If so, Smalltalk can be learned (to the level of getting
something done, as opposed to the level of guru-nicity) *very* quickly!
I just got this thing yesterday, and I have only had a few hours to
play with it, as I am presently constructing a compiler for a class.

As an historical (maybe?) experiment, I am going to try to teach my
computer-phobic parents Smalltalk this summer.  Of course, this sample is
too small to be statistically valid, but it will be interesting!


Wayne Folta          (folta@tove.umd.edu  128.8.128.42)