Re^2: SmallTalk-like Message browser

in reply to Re: SmallTalk-like Message browser
in thread SmallTalk-like Message browser

The output roughly means the following:

---
<filename>:
  <subname>:
    called from: <filename>:<subname>: <this many times>
[download]

The reason you're seeing odd results is a limitation of static analysis. If you have two packages with identically named methods, then their usage gets lumped together. That is, One->new and Two->new are grouped, and count as two calls to new.

# file Classone.pm
package Classone;
sub new { }
1;

# file Classtwo.pm
package Classtwo;
sub new { }
sub a_method {
    Classone->new;
    Classtwo->new;
}
1;
[download]

Those two files result in:

Classone.pm:
  new:
    Classtwo.pm:a_method: 2
Classtwo.pm:
  a_method: {}

  new:
    Classtwo.pm:a_method: 2
[download]

I don't think you can get meaningful results unless you have an interactive environment -- like Squeak -- that can track the class of the invocant. Still, this is a nice approximation. As long as you keep the limitations in mind, it can be quite useful.

In Section Code Catacombs