Hi guys. If I tell you the selector is Dictionary >> #at:ifAbsentPut:� what would you expect the second parameter to be?� the value.
So, one would do:
Dictionary new at: #foo ifAbsentPut: 4

But if you see Dictionary >>

at: key ifAbsentPut: aBlock
�� "Return the value at the given key.
�� If key is not included in the receiver store the result
�� of evaluating aBlock as new value."

�� ^ self at: key ifAbsent: [self at: key put: aBlock value]

so it expects a Block. Ok, we are in Smalltalk, so implementing #value is enough.

Well..the previous example works, but only because we have an ugly Object >> value� that returns self.
If I put instances of subclasses from ProtoObjects (proxies), that do not work anymore.

So...my question is we do Dictionary at: #foo put: 4, why #at:ifAbsentPut:� expects a block and not directly the value?
in which case I need a block instead of the value object directly ?

thanks

--
Mariano
http://marianopeck.wordpress.com