[net.lang.st80] Smalltalk questions

oneill@lll-crg.ARPA (Neil J. O'Neill) (02/13/85)

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.

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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-