From: avi@...4.com (Avi Bryant)
Date: 2002-02-15T10:59:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Keyword arguments (Was: File.open weirdness)

> And now see the beauty of smalltalk's position-fixed-named-arguments syntax
> (something that even lisp doesn't have)
> 
> [File open: "xxx" withMode: 0yyy]

I can see you do more Obj-C than Smalltalk - in Smalltalk, [] creates
a block, it's not necessary around message sends ;-).

I am a huge fan of Smalltalk's keyword syntax - it allows a method to
have lots of meaningfully named minute variations (my favorite example
is the trio of Dictionary methods at:, at:ifAbsent:, and
at:ifAbsentPut: - try finding this last method in any other language)
and has a nicely self-documenting rhythm.

However, Matz has made it pretty clear that such syntax is not the
Ruby Way... and to be honest, it would probably decrease Ruby's
acceptance (unlike Smalltalk, Ruby can get under the radar of algol
syntax bigots).  If Smalltalk is what you want, you can always just
use Smalltalk. ;-)