Whither SmallScript? (was Re: Integer micro-benchmarks)

[phil hunt]

On Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:38:10 -0000, Andrew Hunt <andy at toolshed.com> wrote:
>> > class Foo < Bar
>> > 	def myMethod
>> > 		File.new ("test.dat", "w") { |f| 
>> > 			f.puts "Hello world!"
>> > 		}
>> > 	end
>> > end
>> 
>> What do the vertical bars around the f  ("|f|") above indicate ? 
>
>A local variable to the block, used to pass the parameter from File.new.
>
>> ( Maybe it's those extra non alphanumeric operator looking chars
>> that make folks think of Perl -- even if they are used differently, 
>> to someone that doesn't read Ruby, it looks like more "line noise".)
>
>Doesn't Smalltalk use vertical bars as well? 

Yes.

> I don't think that
>qualifies as line noise. 

I find them rather aesthetically pleasing.

> The @-prefix on instance variables might,

Yuk. It's $one $of $the $things $I $dislike $about $Perl.

And PHP, for that matter.

-- 
*****[ Phil Hunt ***** philh at comuno.freeserve.co.uk ]*****
"Mommy, make the nasty penguin go away." -- Jim Allchin, MS head 
of OS development, regarding open source software (paraphrased).