Re: [Pharo-dev] [Pharo 5] Symbol #'distance_2pts' not accepted at package installation

April 25, 2016


      On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 10:19 AM, Ben Coman <btc@openinworld.com> wrote:
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On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:03 AM, Stephan Eggermont <stephan@stack.nl> wrote:
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On 24-04-16 21:35, stepharo wrote:
...
Le 24/4/16 Ã  12:10, Hilaire a Ã©crit :
...
Hi Nicolai,
http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~HilaireFernandes/DrGeo
You can't use the installation procedure described in the wiki, because
Pharo5 also got stuck when loading a dependent package (gettext package
to name it).
From where do you load gettext because I can have a look.
Your work is important to me :)
It is a simple, but annoying problem. A symbol with whitespace between the
# and the literal is no longer accepted by RBScanner>scanLiteral
That seems a bad regression, to break loading code that
loads fine with Pharo 4, and could be a common scenario.
...
scanLiteral
    "Do not allow whitespace between # and the literal."
"Do not allow number literals after the #"
self step.
    characterType = #alphabetic
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanSymbol ].
    characterType = #binary
        ifTrue:
            [ ^ (self scanBinary: RBLiteralToken)
                stop: self previousStepPosition ].
    currentCharacter = $'
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanStringSymbol ].
    (currentCharacter = $( or: [ currentCharacter = $[ ])
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanLiteralArrayToken ].
    "Accept multiple #."
    currentCharacter = $#
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanLiteral ].
    ^ self scanError: 'Expecting a literal type'
vs
scanLiteral
    self step.
    self stripSeparators.
    characterType = #alphabetic
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanSymbol ].
    characterType = #binary
        ifTrue: [ ^ (self scanBinary: RBLiteralToken) stop: self
previousStepPosition ].
    currentCharacter = $'
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanStringSymbol ].
    (currentCharacter = $( or: [ currentCharacter = $[ ])
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanLiteralArrayToken].
    "Accept some strange literals like '#1', '# species' and '##species:'"
    characterType = #digit
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanNumber ].
    currentCharacter = $#
        ifTrue: [ ^ self scanLiteral ].
    ^self scanError: 'Expecting a literal type' translated.
The problem is that recovering from that while loading code asks for
rather well-developed debugging skills... It is faster to just load the code
in an old Pharo image, fix it there and commit a new version
Wouldn't you then have the problem of manually tracking down
that space in your codebase ?
Is it feasible to have a setting for compatibility so old code can at
least be loaded in Pharo 5? Then a re-compilation with setting
disabled would directly identify the error to be fixed.   Maybe even
Monticello could always temporarily enable the setting while loading -
with that behaviour removed for Pharo 6.
Normally there is already a setting to use the old parser.
I have done something similar recently in order to load old code,
I just switch the setting before loading my old code and then fix the code.

Regards,
-- 
Serge Stinckwich
UCBN & UMI UMMISCO 209 (IRD/UPMC)
Every DSL ends up being Smalltalk
http://www.doesnotunderstand.org/