Dale wrote:
Because of the obvious portability problems this would introduce, I would think that an attempt should be made to come up with a common namespace solution ...
I'm not sure about the current namespace solutions existing today in vendor driven Smalltalks. You and me were participants in the first CampSmalltalk in San Diego in 2000 with many others trying to get the Smalltalk's closer which was already hard at that time because of the many dialects and differences (VW, VAST, Gemstone, Squeak, ST/MT, Dolphin, ...) Some of this work influenced todays Smalltalk world with frameworks and tools. Today Smalltalks shares not only basic core classes but also a common unit framework and similar test runners, have code exchange and formats, even a framework like Seaside could somehow be managed "portable". But there was not much success in REALLY aligning all the proprietary solutions regarding class libraries, common behavior of methods, tools, UI or even frameworks. You cant file out, file in and just run. Because we have different pragma solutions, different foreign function interfaces, different way of building tools ... even differences on compiler and meta level. So "portability problems" are already a reality for many other reasons. Dont get me wrong. I'm all ears if you see a way to build a "common" or "portable" route for unified namespace solution, but to make this a reality: - commercial vendors would have to see a need for (another) portable solution - would need to invest into this topic with time and resources - would have to jump onto the "open" and MIT licensed bandwagon to share with open source Smalltalks like Squeak and Pharo - would have to adopt their own solutions to a new portable one - you would need to get all the different interests under one umbrella Which I doubt such a thing will happen because vendors already have own proprietary existing namespace solutions. Even when this would be possible they would have to invest in explaining this to their customers who also would need to migrate from existing vendor namespace solutions. This thread is not about Namespaces, just about an optional separator in global names. So independent from the reasons to start this thread I doubt we will ever find a path to a unified namespace solution. You can call me a pessimist in this regard, even in having a short-term common namespace solution for Pharo, Squeak and Cuis.
something that a small community cannot really afford to do
Community is not big ... but growing. At least from what I see in open source Smalltalks like Squeak, Pharo, Cuis, ... with new community members, ideas, frameworks, books, unifying VM, ... We would continue to be a small community if our world would have stopped and kept the things the way they were defined initially in ST. I would not like to imagine the size of the overall ST community without the fresh air of these open source Smalltalks. Maybe I'm mistaken but so far Pharo is already the one who EXPLORES new routes with Traits, Slots, MetaLinks, OpalCompiler, ... often these are already "non-portable". So while you can use them if you are in need of them you should stay away from them if you have portability to other Smalltalks in mind. Right? This does not solve the portability issue but provides freedem: because you can share with other Smalltalks if necessary - but also allows you to follow new paths, use slots and other. But back to the topic: ====================== Please do not misunderstood my orginal post: I DONT want to have or discuss a new and perfect namespace solution now as an outcome here. Usually when similar threads were discussed we only agreed that this never gets reality. ;) I JUST want to change the single method #isValidGlobalName to be MORE FLEXIBLE and to allow for an EXPLICIT and OPTIONAL SEPARATOR IN GLOBAL NAMES. Nothing less but also nothing more. So this is about an optional separator in global names, not about a full namespace solution. By allowing such a separator anyone (including me) who feels the need to experiment or try out new paths can then play with it: - maybe just for readability to write prefixed classes like this "KillerApp::Window" - maybe just to avoid conflicts as with a better separated prefix ("MyKillApp::Person" vs. "YouKillerApp::Person") - maybe to experiment with having two versions of a class inside of the image "OldVersion::MyClass" and "NewVersion::MyClass" - maybe because you want to import/map namespace from other languages like Java/.NET/C++/... to it (like mapping Java to Pharo as org::apache::commons::lang::StringUtils and so on) to experiment with Pharo as a multilanguage engine or experiment in a better JNIPort - maybe because you want to map different platform facilities or libraries ("Common::Window", "Windows::Window", "OSX::Window", "GTK::Window", ...) - maybe to provide useful shadow classes that are not visible by default in regular tools ("Shadows::Object", "Shadows::Boolean", ...) - maybe to be able to import and separate classes from different Smalltalk systems ("VW::Object", "VAST::Object", ...) - and yes: maybe also to do initial experiments towards a future portable or non-portable namespace solution - ... - [ADD YOUR OWN IDEAS HERE] So anything I want is a single and small step forward: the possibility in Pharo 6 for global names to allow a COMPLETELY OPTIONAL separator without having to "dirty patch" the method #isValidGlobalName in the base image. So if one wants to write regular code or even portable code and code that is traditional, working with all tools he could and should stay away from this OPTIONAL separator possibility. Nothing changes on the usual Pharo and Smalltalk side, you can code and share as before. But if one feels the need to use such a possibility for own custom stuff or experiments it is there and one can use it. I feel a very strong need on my side for such experiments because I would like to explore new grounds with it. I can patch/overwrite the method in my custom images - but this is not so clean and nice. Pharo should give this freedom out of the box and I hope that you agree with me. Maybe others have similar ideas and want to experiment as well. Thats why I opened this thread - if the community supports the idea and shares similar visions I will open a bug, provide a slice and we include it. In my opinion it opens new opportunities. If community disagrees and it will not become part of the base image out of the box (or only as part of a full namespace solution) I will continue patching my custom images. I'm fine with that as well - but then at least I tried to get this in. Thanks T.