Hi,

In short, everything that is not namespace/module compatible will be deprecated/changed/removed in the future, so it is not recommended to use it.

a.2) #Array asClassInEnvironment: Smalltalk globals
b.1) Smalltalk globals at: #Array
=> Ok-ish, note that you may need to change 'Smalltalk globals'��the namespace/module when support for those will be added since Array will be in a module.
Maybe you want instead to use instead:

c) self class environment at: #Array
=> this will work in the future if your code is a class which environment/namespace/module includes the Array class you would expect

a.1) #Array asClass
b.2) Smalltalk at: #Array
b.3) Smalltalk classNamed: #Array
=> In which namespace/module are you looking for #Array ? In the future this may be removed, alternatively it will work only for globals but not globals inside namespace/module which won't work since Array will be in a module.


On Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 12:57 PM, Peter Uhn��k <i.uhnak@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

what is the canonical way to get a class from a symbol?

a) Converting symbol into class via string protocol

a.1) #Array asClass
I use this the most, because it is easy, uses unary selector, and so far I've never ran into any issues. But apparently it is not good -- why?

a.2) #Array asClassInEnvironment: Smalltalk globals

b) Retriving the class by key from the system dictionary

b.1) Smalltalk globals at: #Array

b.2) Smalltalk at: #Array

b.3) Smalltalk classNamed: #Array

c) something else entirely?

I get that using #asClass wouldn't work if there was a different environment, however I don't even know in what situation there could be a different environment, so I cannot assert how problematic it is or isn't.

Thanks,
Peter



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Cl��ment B��ra
Pharo consortium engineer
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