Symbol a little more as block

[privat]

Implements Symbol>>value:value: so symbol can be used in more methods of collection (and other classes)

You can now write the following

(#(1 9 0 6 6) sorted: #>=) >>> #(9 6 6 1 0)
(#(2r101 2r011 2r100) inject: 0 into: #bitXor:) >>> 2r010 

Maybe we can simulate the whole API of blocks on symbols, but I'm not sure: 1. that this is a good idea nor 2. what is best way to do it without too much boilerplate code, duplication and technical dept. Maybe with traits?

[svenvc]

I kind of like this style but many people do not.

This is something that comes up from time to time, it has been discussed before.

[jordanmontt]

Indeed this is a hot debate :) What I know is that using Symbol as blocks is not recommended because the perform: message makes it significantly slower

[MarcusDenker]

The fun thing is that it is actually faster. If you use a block, the VM has to create the block from the CompiledBlock at runtime. The Symbol is there and #value

[#(1) do: #yourself] bench 

[#(1) do: [:each | each yourself]] bench 

This gets better if you enable "clean block closures", but even there the Symbol case is a little bit faster when I try it.

[jordanmontt]

Interesting! So why we discourage people of using Symbol as blocks ?

[privat]

Encouraging using symbol as block is very fragile. So it is better to not expand the feature that much.