[e-lang] get/put for Slots

[Kevin Reid]

On Aug 30, 2006, at 1:24, Dean Tribble wrote:
> On 8/17/06, Kevin Reid <kpreid at mac.com> wrote:
>> What if the getValue and setValue messages for Slots were renamed  
>> to 'get' and 'put'? This would match collection access  
>> conventions, in that a slot would be a zero-dimensional  
>> collection. Also, it would allow access in the style of the 'unary- 
>> star' syntax, while not being additional syntax.
>
> I'm not sure that it is useful to tempt people into cleverly  
> oveloading slots with lists, etc. :-)

That particular case doesn't occur because lists are one-dimensional.  
In general, I claim that a slot /is/ semantically a collection, and  
should resemble one. Unnecessarily different protocols cause  
unnecessary glue code.

> Do you have a pattern of usage in mind?

Only "whatever usage unary-star was invented for".

The original motivation for the idea was property-access designs that  
might inherently involve slots; in which case the messages of Slots  
shouldn't resemble an infinite regress.

> My preference would be to have a protocol that highlighted when a  
> slot was being accessed via methods since that's a likely source of  
> inobvious aliasing.

I would prefer to say that "&" is the highlighting; you can't have  
'inobvious aliasing' without it.

-- 
Kevin Reid                            <http://homepage.mac.com/kpreid/>