December 21, 2024

Smalltalk Messages

 

Objects respond to messages in their protocol and, broadly speaking, can be categorised as follows. N.B. h1 and h2 are two variables that reference instances of the HoverFrog class.

  1. A message that changes the state of an object e.g. right
  2. A message that gets an object to do something but doesn't cause a change in state e.g. jump
  3. A message that retrieves some data from an object e.g. colour
  4. A message that requires collaboration, and hence further message sending, between objects e.g. sending the message sameColourAs: h2 to h1, results in h1 sending the message colour to h2. h2 returns a message answer to h1 e.g. Green. This message answer is a reference to the object representing the value of the colour attribute of h2. h1 takes this value and passes it as the argument to the keyword colour: and sends itself the message colour: Green

The name of a message is called the message selector or selector e.g. colour, left or sameColourAs:

There are three kinds of message selector.

  1. Keyword messages, which require arguments (parameters).
    h1 position: 2.
    position: is the keyword selector and 2 is the argument
    h1 hover: Up by: 4
    hover:by: is the keyword selector requiring two arguments, in this case Up - a reference to the string 'up'- and 4
  2. Unary messages, which do not take an argument
    h2 colour.
    colour is the unary selector
  3. Binary messages, which take one argument and have a message selector that is non-alphanumeric. Using numbers, strings and Booleans as an example:
    1 + 1.
    + is the binary selector and 1 is the argument
    'Hey ' , 'Joe'.
    , is the binary selector and 'Joe' is the argument
    true | false
    | is the binary selector and false is the argument.

All messages sent to objects result in the receiver returning a message answer. This message answer is a reference to an object and may or may not be of some use.

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