Beyond Procedure Calls as Component Glue: Connectors Deserve Metaclass Status
summary
A language called Objective-S makes connectors first-class via a metaobject protocol that turns procedure calls, data access, and pipes into polymorphic connectors; it implements this on a Smalltalk/Objective‑C footing and exposes concise surface syntax (arrows, property paths, stream pipes). Concrete results: polymorphic identifiers (URI-based stores and composable storage combinators used in a Wonderlist prototype and BBC work), in-process REST examples, polymorphic white streams and filters, and an anecdotal 2x–10x development speedup when swapping stores and testing.
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chapters (19)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:06What is ObjectivS
- 3:14From Smalltalk to components
- 6:06Software connectors taxonomy
- 8:17Meta object protocols for calls
- 10:25Polymorphic component protocols
- 11:50Higher-order messaging patterns
- 14:21Data access with REST
- 17:11Domain-specific data access
- 19:38Property paths for data
- 21:29Unix pipes with streams
- 23:37Concurrency-agnostic flow
- 25:00Defining filters concisely
- 26:51Data flow constraints
- 28:16Connector roles
- 29:20Future directions
- 30:06Q&A on projections
- 33:43Q&A on data access
- 37:13Q&A on safety
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