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From: oneill@lll-crg.ARPA (Neil J. O'Neill)
Newsgroups: net.lang.st80
Subject: Smalltalk questions
Message-ID: <391@lll-crg.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 19:40:38 EST
Article-I.D.: lll-crg.391
Posted: Tue Feb 12 19:40:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 01:48:57 EST
References: <4288@ucbvax.ARPA> <163@wanginst.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Labs, CRG group
Lines: 23

A brief reading of the Smalltalk-80 "Blue Book" has left me with 
quite a few questions.  I would welcome comment on the truth or
fallacy of the following statements.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Variables are a special entity in Smalltalk that, without being
Objects themselves, refer to Objects.

Variables are typeless in the sense that

	[zap <- #(1 2 3).
	 zap <- 3.7654.
	 zap <- 'string']

is a legal block which would leave zap with the value of 'string'.
(Or perhaps variables are strongly typed -- all being of type Object)

Arguments passed to a Receiver are passed by value and not by 
reference.

-Neil-