[Cuis-dev] reflection and questionable tab completion

[Mark Volkmann]

On Fri, Jun 14, 2024 at 1:41 PM Hernán Wilkinson <
hernan.wilkinson at 10pines.com> wrote:

>
>> What is the source of the blue messages? For example, what does it think
>> that `Smalltalk packages` represents if not a supported message?
>>
>
> All object respond to the message #respondsTo:  :-)
> So, "Smalltalk respondsTo: #pacakges" --> false
>
>
>> What's the value in tab completion showing them if they aren't really
>> supported messages?
>>
>
> That because it is a dynamically typed language you are allow to send a
> message to an object that it does not answer at the moment... but it will
> eventually, for example you can evaluate "Smalltalk qqq" it will open the
> debugger because Smalltalk does not respond to that message, but you can
> press the "Create" button in the debugger, implement the #qqq message and
> after implementing it press "Proceed" and uala! Now Smalltalk responds to
> #qqq :-)
>
> That is the power of a dynamically typed language :-)
>

My question is why tab completion reports "packages" as a possibility when
I just type "Smalltalk pa" and press tab. For example, it doesn't suggest
"panda". So it must be getting the name "packages" from somewhere despite
the fact that it isn't a valid message that I can send to the Smalltalk
object.

-- 
R. Mark Volkmann
Object Computing, Inc.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cuis.st/mailman/archives/cuis-dev/attachments/20240614/c4ec0d84/attachment.htm>