On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 4:35 PM G B via Pharo-users < pharo-users@lists.pharo.org> wrote:

Being new not only to Smalltalk, but OOP in general, I think I finally am understanding things. One area I am still unsure about is the class side versus the instance side. Does one usually use the class side when they want those inherited in every subclass, which frees one from having to declare them in every instance?

One of the important concepts in Smalltalk is that *everything* is an object. When we say "class side" and "instance side", we are using a shorthand for the two objects involved. In most Smalltalks, the "class side" is really a meta-class and the "instance side" is really the class. The browser is designed to present them together because it makes sense to do that. Both sets of behaviours and variables are inherited by subclasses. [I'm playing a little loose here, as there is a distinction between a Class Variable and a Class Instance Variable in the meta-class.] The meta-class/"class side" typically deals with instance creation and management. The "instance side" provides the behaviours associated with the instances of the class.

TIA for reading my silly questions.

Not silly at all. This is a somewhat opaque topic since the browser makes it appear less obvious.