1) nested classes. GNU Smalltalk already supports Class.ClassVar
notation to access class variables. This could be easily extended to
support nested classes, all it requires is parser support.
Note these wouldn't be closures like Java inner classes, they would just
use the class pool dictionary as a namespace.
hidden complications: GUI support, fileout support,
reflection support
2) additional binary operators. This can come in many ways:
2.a) ".." instead of #to:. Also make the compiler recognize "a .. b do:
[]" and similar.
2.b) Unicode binary operators. Less-than-or-equal for example. Let's
wait for Perl 6 which also has those though. :)
3) additional literals. #/abc/ for Regex, for example.
4) A magic DWIM "match" (I'll call it #=~) and "transform" (#<<) operator:
[:a | true] =~ something matches everything
#/abc/ =~ something means something matches regex
#(1 3 5 10) =~ something means something is in the collection
'aeiouy' =~ something strings are not special, but...
#even =~ something ... means "something even == true"
[:a | a] << something is the identity
#/\[.*\]/ << something gives the first regex match
#(1 2 4 8) << something maps key to value
'0123456789' << something strings are not special, but...
#abs =~ something ... symbols are
#select: and #reject: use #=~, #collect: uses #<<. It is also possible
to use keyword methods, of course.
5) Extended blocks:
5.a) Anonymous variables for blocks.
x select: [ _ even ]
1..10 fold: [ _ + _ ]
5.b) Variable-argument blocks
[ :r :m :a... | r perform: m withArguments: a ]
value: 1 value: #+ value: 2
5.c) Optional (efficient) currying:
plus := [ :r :m :a... | r perform: m withArguments: a ] curry
value: 1 value: #+.
plus value: 2 "=> 3"
Any more ideas?
Paolo
_______________________________________________
help-smalltalk mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-smalltalk
