[Help-smalltalk] Re: meaning of Collection>>#copyEmpty:

[Paolo Bonzini]

> Clearly, this has a different meaning when the argument to new: is 
> treated as a capacity.  Furthermore, is #(nil nil nil nil nil) 
> considered an empty Array?

As empty as possible, given that Array is not extensible.

> I recently discovered that, due to this discrepancy, OrderedCollections 
> cannot be used as contents of WriteStreams.  This isn't a major problem, 
> because WriteStreams are after all designed to do the extra work that 
> OrderedCollections do for you.  And Squeak, at least, shares this 
> "feature".
>
> I suppose my real question is whether this method can be rewritten in a 
> way such that it would work sensibly for OrderedCollections without 
> expanding the Collection protocol or doing explicit isKindOf: tests? -- 
> not that I would recommend replacing this perfectly sensible 
> implementation for such a silly purpose at all:

I don't follow you really, but if you propose a patch to make 
WriteStreams work on extensible collections, I'll be happy to review it.

Paolo