Hello Pharo users,

I'm pleased to announce the release of Deprecator.

It's a prototype of a small tool that permits you to deprecate method by annotating them with a <deprecated: ...> pragma.

This pragma takes a rewrite expression as argument that specifies how to rewrite the message send to the deprecated method. 

If such a deprecated method is executed, a warning is thrown and a debugger opens.

This debugger has a little 'Rewrite' button that permits to rewrite the sending method according to the rewrite expression and then resume the execution with the new rewritten sending method :)

The implementation is a proof-of-concept and is a bit hacky here and there, but it works. 

Example:

You have a class C with a method that you deprecate. 

Its rewrite expression tells that if it's executed as the result of a message send of the form: 

<receiver> deprecatedMethodArg1: <arg1> arg2: <arg2>, 

this message send should be rewritten to: 

<receiver> replacementMethodArg1: <arg2> arg2: <arg1>.

 Note you can change the order of arguments or even the receiver.

 

C>>deprecatedMethodArg1: o1 arg2: o2

<deprecated: '`@receiver replacementMethodArg1: `@arg2 arg2: `@arg1'>

  ^ #deprecated

C>>replacementMethodArg1: o1 arg2: o2

^ #replacement

C>>senderMethod

^ self deprecatedMethodArg1: 1 + 1 arg2: 2 + 2.

Then if you execute C new senderMethod, and then click on the "Rewrite" button of the debugger, then sending method is rewritten to:

C>>senderMethod

^ self replacementMethodArg1: 2 + 2 arg2: 1 + 1.

and the result is #replacement. 

The repo is on sSmalltalkHub:

MCHttpRepository

location: 'http://smalltalkhub.com/mc/CamilleTeruel/Deprecator/main'

user: ''

password: ''

I hope for comments, feature suggestions, code reviews, contributors, etc :) 

BTW, if you have a better name for this project let me know! 

For example, I thought about Ammonite because it's an extinct animal (analogy with deprecated) and it fits the sea naming theme.

Cheers,

Camille