[ANSI-Smalltalk] Re: A list of interesting methods, ifNotNil:

[Paolo Bonzini]

cstb wrote:
> At 08:57 PM 9/25/2008, Andres wrote:
>> ...
>> I try not to use ifNil:/ifNotNil: as a conditional branch control
>> message because they do not behave the same as ifTrue:ifFalse:.
> 
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> For that same reason, and several others,
> I'd rather we did *not* name these things
> using variations of the pattern
> 
>         #if{condition}:
> 
> so that the sequence
> 
>     space-$i-$f

So you don't use ifTrue:ifFalse: to do

  x := foo ifTrue: [1] ifFalse: [0].

?

It is also ironic that I find these names

> 1)  >>isNil: a0block    (^self isNil ifTrue: [a0block value] ifFalse: [self])
> 2)  >>notNil: a0block   (^self isNil ifTrue: [nil] ifFalse: [a0block value])
> 3)  >>nonNil: a1block   (^self isNil ifTrue: [nil] ifFalse: [a1block value: self])
> 4)  >>orIfNil: a0block  (^self isNil ifTrue: [a0block value] ifFalse: [self])

to be totally non-intention revealing except the fourth -- the only one
which includes "If" in its name.

I think any decent standardization process of features that are already
"in the wild" should look at existing code, and historically the methods
were named #ifNil:ifNotNil:.  They were in VA Smalltalk around ~1996
with an "abt" prefix (like #abtIfNil:ifNotNil:).

The "Do" part was added in Squeak only because they do not support
variable arity blocks, which could be added contextually.

Paolo