Transcript and Dot Notation

[James Spencer]

On Feb 24, 2006, at 2:02 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:

> I am an object-oriented programmer by training and disposition. Every
> single object oriented programming language that I've used (and I have
> admittedly not used them all) with the single exception of Smalltalk
> (which I actually think got it right) uses dot notation. Java.
> JavaScript. Lingo. Ruby. Python. All of them. It is an accepted
> convention in OO languages where it is essential to identify methods
> and attributes with object namespaces.

I'll let the rest of you hash this out but just to point out the  
other obvious exception to the implication that dot notation is  
somehow essentially ubiquitous in the OO world, I would point out  
that, ironically (because it is the primary language for the Mac at  
the moment), Objective C (which has some obvious Smalltalk influence)  
does not use dot notation for accessing instance variables.

James P. Spencer
Rochester, MN

jspencer78 at mac.com

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