> […], `contents` is intention obscuring because it seems to indicate it is fine to know about the contents of a distinction without crossing it — `contents` does not have strong encapsulation connotations. But not all is lost since we did mention the act of crossing distinctions. Thus, we will choose the verb instead of the noun, and send the message `cross` instead. If we let it be an accessor, then we will have an intention revealing instance name too.
Form>>cross: aName ^(self distinguish: aName) cross
Note how this can create a distinction the first time, and reuse it thereafter. This is consistent with the *Laws of Form* axiom that says that using a name twice is the same as using it once. Also, note how the distinction answers its contents form when answering the message `cross`. This emphasizes how important proper names can be.
* Determining Boundaries already involves crossing them. SCHEIT, Gerhard, 2022. Mit Marx. 12 zum Teil scholastische Versuche zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Freiburg: ça-ira-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86259-185-5, p. 25
There are […] a multitude of ways in which pedestrians and drivers negotiate a pedestrian crossing.
> There are drivers who would simply stop for the pedestrian no matter what, except maybe if they are taking someone injured to a hospital. There are drivers who see crossings as a place to compete with pedestrians over who gets to *cross* first. There are drivers who stop in a matter of fact manner and drivers who expect to be thanked. But of course the same driver can behave at a crossing differently according to the mood they are in, if they are in a hurry or not, if they slept well or not, and maybe according to their previous experience of stopping at pedestrian crossings. For, of course, just as drivers stop in different ways, crossings are also crossed differently by pedestrians. There are pedestrians who express gratitude and pedestrians who cross arrogantly. There are pedestrians who cross absent mindedly and those who are very conscious of the traffic. There are those who cross treating cars as enemies and those who cross trying to cause minimal disruption to the traffic.
* using Polymorphism to *cross* distinctions drawn by means of classes ⇒ Traversals
> If we decided to model objects in terms of a Distinction, then we would want to cross into it every time we needed to traverse its contents. In part, we take that for granted when we send messages, because Smalltalk is already providing for the automatic crossing of the object’s boundary. Thinking of an object as a distinction, thus, does not seem very convincing for our purposes.
DOT FROM lambda-browsing