References to symbols or atoms

[Thomas Holzer]

Hi,

I´m looking for a way to find references to symbols or atoms in the Smalltalk source. I found a discussion on comp.lang.smalltalk:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lan ... 9b3d25a950
But I did not manage to find a way in VA Smalltalk to find references for symbols. Although, I found strange atoms in few system methods. This looks exactly like the solution I was looking for. For example:

Code: Select all

CwToggleButton>>createEwFlowedIconList: theName argBlock: argBlock
  ##PR = ##'1E3MPXK'.
   ^EwFlowedIconList
      createWidget: theName
      parent: self
      argBlock: argBlock

PR stands for problem report? And the '1E3MPXK' is the problem number? How to find the methods with PR 1E3MPXK?

Could someone explain how this works, and how could I find references to symbols or atoms?

Regards Thomas

[tc]

Hello,

##'1E3MPXK', when inspected, comes back as an EsAtom and I do not think one can search for that through the 'browse references' function.

However, under the options menu in the transcript, there is a method string search function. That would find the string '1E3MPXK'.

--tc

[marten]

You may use "Browse References ..." frm Transcript>Options menu and enter "PR" (without ##) or "1FI579S" (without ##) and you will find the place (and some others too).

Marten

[tc]

The menu item Options -> browse methods -> including string or a different one?

-tc

[marten]

I was wrong, it's from Transcript>>Tools menu "Browse References ..." and I think, it's the same tool you mentioned two postings earlier in this thread - you can get the information needed via this menu entry - though one seem to get also some additional hits ...

[tc]

Hello,

What exactly do you type because I get zero hits.

--tc

[marten]

Hello,

What exactly do you type because I get zero hits.

--tc

Well I type

PR

and get several hits for the atomic ##PR but also for string 'PR'.

As an example CfsFileDescriptor class>>copy:to: includes

##PR = ##'1EUSVRC'

[benvandijk]

Hi Thomas,

You can also find symbois using the browse senders from the transcript menu (or any other menu).
You have to type the symbol without the # to get a result.

Greetings, Ben.

P.S. Marten: I think you was confusing the options menu from the VA Organizer with the tools menu in the Transcript

[tc]

Hello,

Got it. Just tried it again and:

#PR = ##'1G4CZE9'.

. . . #PR can be found by doing references or senders of PR. ##'1G4CZE9' can be found by doing references to 1G4CZE9 (no quotes).

--tc

[rjs]

There is a related issue for what I believe are called compile time constants (CTC). These are similar to Atoms, but entail more code than a simple symbol or string. For example:

Code: Select all

    ^##(Dictionary new
        at: self someKeyMethod put: self someValue;
        yourself)


You cannot use the Tools/References or Tools/Senders to determine this method uses Dictionary, #someKeyMethod, or #someValue.

It would be nice if methods using compile time constants would (optionally could) record the global references, method selectors, and other literals used to build the CTC.