Self Objects

[sanssecours]

--- In self-interest at yahoogroups.com, Jecel Assumpcao Jr <jecel at m...>
wrote:
>
> sanssecours wrote on Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:33:02 -0000
> > I have to write a little paper about self. I haven't programmed
> > anything in Self or Smalltalk yet and only have a little experience in
> > the mainstream programming languages out there (C,Java..). I think I
> > already understand the "basics" of the Language. However there are
> > some code samples on the Self-Homepage that I don't understand for
> > example:
> 
> Could you give a little more information about where you found this
> example? There are a few things that are a bit strange about it.
>  
> >  (| x. y |
> > x: 3.··y: 4.
> > x squared + y squared)
> > 
> > Ok as far as I know that sample shows an object with two slots that
> > contain the objects x and y  but what do the rest of the code mean. It
> > seems like the code declares some method that returns x squared + y
> > squared but whats the name of this method how can you use this method
> > (in Java something like: Object.Method() - whats the corresponding
> > code in Self). And what do the Points: "··" between x: 3 and y: 4
> > mean. It woul be very nice if sombeody out ther could help me.
> 
> I should point out that the textual syntax became less important when
> the graphical programming environment was introduced in Self 4.0 (1995)
> though it is still very convenient for discussing code via email and
> stuff like that.
> 
> Your guess is correct - the syntax for an object or method is
> 
> ( | slots | code )
> 
> where the "code" part is empty for regular objects (not the case above)
> so they simply return themselves when accessed as a value in some slot.
> Methods can have local slots like "x" and "y" in the example but they
> also can have argument slots that don't make sense for regular objects.
> On the other hand, having a method loose like that instead of defined in
> some slot doesn't make any sense, as you also guessed.
> 
> The two dashes before the "y:" could be a valid binary selector so the
> code could be interpreted as
> 
>    set "x" to 3
>    send "--" to self with the result of setting "y" to 4 as its argument
>    return the sum of the squares of "x" and "y"
> 
> The second line seems *very* strange. If I had to guess I would say that
> some text transformation(s) converted two tabs or similar formatting
> whitespace into dashes.
> 
> -- Jecel
>

Thanks for your quick response Jecel. It was very helful altough I
have to admit that I really don't understand everything you wrote.
Maybe the fault are my poor english-skills or maybe it is the rather
complex syntax of self that's that is confusing me. Here is my short
interpration of what you've written:

"define a object with the two objects x and y."
 (| x. y |
 x: 3.··y: 4. "set the object x to 3, set y to 4"
 x squared + y squared) "return (x squared) + (y squared) " 

Could you please explain me why you have to send "--" to self ?
Wouldn't this example without the "--" also work as expected and did i
get this right: the method actually has no name ? How do you call the
method ?

The code for the sample was taken from the sun-website:
http://research.sun.com/self/release_4.0/Self-4.0/Tutorial/Language/SyntaxAndSemantics/LiteralObjects.html

Greetings (and thanks again :-)

rene