12.12: Example — Deprecation
- Page ID
- 45972
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Deprecation offers a case study of a mechanism built using resumable exceptions. Deprecation is a software re-engineering pattern that allows us to mark a method as being “deprecated”, meaning that it may disappear in a future release and should not be used by new code. In Pharo, a method can be marked as deprecated as follows:
Utilities class»convertCRtoLF: fileName "Convert the given file to LF line endings. Put the result in a file with the extention '.lf'" self deprecated: 'Use ''FileStream convertCRtoLF: fileName'' instead.' on: '10 July 2009' in: #Pharo1.0 . FileStream convertCRtoLF: fileName
When the message convertCRtoLF:
is sent, if the setting raiseWarning
is true
, then a pop-up window is displayed with a notification and the programmer may resume the application execution; this is shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) (Settings are explained in details in Chapter 5). Of course, since this method is deprecated you will not find it in current Pharo distributions. Look for another sender of deprecated:on:in:
.

Deprecation is implemented in Pharo in just a few steps. First, we define Deprecation
as a subclass of Warning
. It should have some instance variables to contain information about the deprecation: in Pharo these are methodReference
, explanationString
, deprecationDate
and versionString
; we therefore need to define an instance-side initialization method for these variables, and a class-side instance creation method that sends the corresponding message.
When we define a new exception class, we should consider overriding isResumable, description, and defaultAction. In this case the inherited implementations of the first two methods are fine:
isResumable
is inherited fromException
, and answerstrue
;description
is inherited fromException
, and answers an adequate textual description.
However, it is necessary to override the implementation of defaultAction
, because we want that to depend on some particular settings. Here is Pharo’s implementation:
Deprecation»defaultAction Log ifNotNil: [:log| log add: self]. self showWarning ifTrue: [Transcript nextPutAll: self messageText; cr; flush]. self raiseWarning ifTrue: [super defaultAction]
The first preference simply causes a warning message to be written on the Transcript
. The second preference asks for an exception to be signaled, which is accomplished by super
-sending defaultAction
.
We also need to implement some convenience methods in Object
, like this one:
Object»deprecated: anExplanationString on: date in: version (Deprecation method: thisContext sender method explanation: anExplanationString on: date in: version) signal