Re: Standard Lua Library

[David Given <dg@...>]

Rici Lake wrote:
[...]
> This is also considered a strength of Smalltalk / Squeak and 
> Objective-C, as I understand it.

Yes, this dates back from Smalltalk-80 and before.

Reasoning:

- make a subclass on Number called Distance. You can now make a Distance
  object representing five metres with 'Distance new: 5'.
- add a method to Number, 'metres', that calls 'Distance new: n'.
- add a method to Number, 'feet', that calls 'Distance new: (n * 0.304.8)'.

You may now say '5 metres' or '18 feet' to construct Distance objects. Natural
and intuitive. (There's a namespace mechanism in place to prevent namespace
pollution.)

I find it rather amusing that practically every shiny new language feature
that are in fashion today were, in fact, done 27 years ago by Smalltalk-80.
People don't learn from history...

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