[Cuis-dev] Improvement: Italic abstract classes and methods in Browser

[Luciano Notarfrancesco]

Also, you could make a package with an alternative browser, as we have the
MultiBrowserWindow package. I wish there were more experimentation and
exploration of alternative ideas as packages, so we could customize our
environment better by loading our favorite packages.


On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 02:50 Hernán Wilkinson via Cuis-dev <
cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:

> The concept of "abstract class" is somehow diffuse in Smalltalk, not like
> in other programming languages (mostly statically type ones) where special
> syntax and semantics exists for abstract classes and methods, like for
> example they cannot be instantiated, etc.
> A "relaxed" definition of abstract class in Smalltalk, like the one you
> propose Ernesto, is helpful, and as you also mention it helped you.
> Does it make sense to have this in Cuis core... well, I'm not sure. Other
> Smalltalks do it but it has a price that goes against having a small and
> fast core.
> I think what you did is a useful tool for CuisUniversity, but some changes
> are needed. Let me know if you are willing to do them and we can continue
> this in private.
>
> Cheers!
> Hernan.
>
> On Wed, Dec 10, 2025 at 3:05 PM Ernesto Ittig via Cuis-dev <
> cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st> wrote:
>
>> On Wed Dec 10, 2025 at 8:22 AM -03, Juan Vuletich wrote:
>> > Hi Ernesto,
>> >
>> > This is very interesting!
>> >
>> > The main problem I see is that #isAbstract is not reliable. I loaded
>> > your code and quickly spotted some classes that were incorrectly marked.
>> >
>> > After some quick counting, (see at the end of this message) it looks
>> > that like of about 700 classes in the base system, around 600 are
>> > properly identified, and around 100 are most likely not.
>> >
>> > We need a reliable way to identify abstract classes if the Browser is
>> to
>> > show that information. People will rely on it, and assume it is correct.
>> >
>> > Does anybody know how to do this? It would be great.
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> Firstly, thank you for taking the time to look at my submission!
>>
>> I think I made an assumption when making this code that maybe we should
>> examine. My definition of an abstract class was very cutthroat: if a
>> class has any method that sends #subclassResponsibility in its protocol,
>> then it's an abstract class; if it doesn't, then it's concrete.
>>
>> This did lead to some unexpected results. Why is SmallInteger abstract?
>> Well, it doesn't implement #adaptToInteger:andSend:. It doesn't matter
>> that this method shouldn't ever be sent to it, it's a method in its
>> protocol and it's abstract. On the other hand, Object and ActiveModel
>> are concrete; it's strange because you're not supposed to create
>> instances of them, but nothing stops you from doing it, and--most
>> importantly--all the methods in their protocol are concrete.
>>
>> In this view, abstract classes are a syntactical category (you can't
>> make instances of then and use all their protocol) rather than semantic
>> (you shouldn't make instances of them).
>>
>> I don't think the number of instances is a very reliable way to check
>> this, it depends on too many moving factors. In general, I don't think
>> you will find any automatic method to tag classes as abstract that
>> respects semantic categories. The only way to do this is to manually tag
>> each class.
>>
>> I did find my change set to be useful, especially for finding bugs. This
>> is likely only because I know how it works, so I'm aware there are many
>> false negatives. But I'm ready to claim all the "false positives" are
>> actually bugs; if a class is concrete then there shouldn't be any
>> abstract methods in its protocol, and I imagine that an omission to
>> implement such methods is caused by the lack of a tool like this one.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ernesto
>> --
>> Cuis-dev mailing list
>> Cuis-dev at lists.cuis.st
>> https://lists.cuis.st/mailman/listinfo/cuis-dev
>>
>
>
> --
>
> *Hernán WilkinsonAgile Software Development, Teaching & Coaching*
> *Phone: +54-011*-4893-2057
> *Twitter: @HernanWilkinson*
> *site: http://www.10Pines.com <http://www.10pines.com/>*
> Address: Alem 896, Floor 6, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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