On Oct 16, 2016 01:17, "CodeDmitry" <dimamakhnin@gmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to do a JavaScript experiment to make Objects behave like
Smalltalk objects.

example:

�� �� "reminder: Smalltalk arrays start at 1."
�� �� |arr|
�� �� a := Array new: 1.
�� �� a at: 1 put: 'Hello, World'.

Here, the Smalltalk array has a message "at: index put: value" which is
defined many layers of prototype chaining down, at Object in category
accessing.

However there are many messages on the way traversing the prototype chain
that start with "at:", such as(SequenceableCollection) "at: x ifAbsent: y",
"at: x incrementBy: y".

How does Smalltalk tell which message is which? Does it merge the messages
into a single message such as "at: x put: y" to "atPut(x, y)" at some point?

Without knowing this, I have to traverse the whole call chain and check
whether each argument is called in a specific way, which is incredibly
expensive. If there was a single name such as "atPut" I can easily just do a
dictionary lookup for this name and get it at O(1).

Does Smalltalk actually store each message?



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