Hello,
As I said in my last note, in smalltalk all the classes are always available.
Let's think about how this would look in Factor. The first step is to load all
the modules in libs, apps, and demos. That's the easy part. The second step
is to do this:
USING: ... ;
Where every single vocabulary in in that ... . At this point you will have an
environment that is like smalltalk where everything is available.
There is a problem. If you call a word, the Factor parser searches the USING:
list in order and takes the first one it finds. In Factor, if more than one
vocabulary names a word with the same name, you have to explicitly tell the
parser which one you want. In Smalltalk, this is never a problem. Classes can
have methods named the same thing and the system figures out which method to
call based on which object you are sending it to.
The point of generic functions (words) is that they dispatch on more than one
argument. Factor has this capability but how much do we use it? These are
interesting questions:
1 - How many generic functions are in Factor?
2 - How many of those dispatch on more than one argument?
All the generic functions which dispatch on a single argument would be better
defined as "message passing" methods.
You can have generic functions and message passing in the same system.
Would you rather worry about having classes or words clashing in name? The
question is easy to answer: which one do you have more of? In any system, you
will always have more methods than classes. Message passing wins here.
Ed
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