🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <46qk9j$mgv@news.inc.net> Karen Jacqmin-Adams,
kadams@froglit.scitele.com references the comment:

>> One of the big problems with Smalltalk is the
>> extremely misleading termonology used therein, e.g. 'message' for
>> 'procedure' and 'sending' for 'calling'.


No, no no!!!

***        A message is NOT a procedure.        ***
***    Sending and Calling are NOT the same.    ***


A method is a procedure. One COULD use the terms interchangably,
but it isn't done. The term 'method' does emphasizes that it is
part of an object and not just a standalone bit of code. 

A message is the NAME of a method, not the method itself.
(Remember that there can be dozens of methods with the same name
and that at different times the same bit of code might invoke
different ones of these.)

Sending has two steps in Smalltalk:

(1) LOOKUP -- Given a message name (or method name since they are
the same) -- find the one method in the context of the receiver
that has the same name.

(2) INVOCATION -- Start up that method. This part is EXACTLY the
same as calling a procedure. 

Sending is a bigger concept that calling; a much bigger concept. It
is what makes OOP special. 

Dave


__________________________________
David N. Smith
dnsmith@watson.ibm.com
70167.2274@compuserve.com
IBM T J Watson Research Center
Hawthorne, NY
__________________________________
Any opinions or recommendations
herein are those of the author  
and not of his employer.