Hi,

The Gofer script does not solve the problem of triggering a special loading selector in the ConfigurationOfXYZ. Furthermore, asClass can be used for other usages as well, but it is clear that it is intended for scripts and not for production code. For example, I recently sent around a script that showed this:

Object subclass: #AClass

instanceVariableNames: ''

classVariableNames: ''

category: 'XYZ'.

#AClass asClass compile: 'someMethod'.

...

I do agree that checking the existence of classes should not happen explicitly in code. For example, the code in Brick that checks for classes should not exist at all.

However, removing asClass will only change the way a class can be looked up from a string. It will still not prevent people to look classes up by symbols in the code. In my mind:

- saying: "#AClass asClass"

- should have the same semantics as saying "AClass"

All in all, I think asClass has a legitimate usage, but we should certainly combat explicit class checking in code.

Cheers,

Doru