smalltalk interview faqs

1. What was the original assignment operator in Smalltalk-80?

2. What does the #at: method of a collection class return?

3. What does the #at:put: method of a collection class return?

4. What is a "first class object"?

5. Tell me about block variables, arguments, and scope of variables.

6. Explain smalltalk mathematical notation, including order of operations and 
 the reasons.

7. Why can't you do recursion in Smalltalk?

8. What is the difference between an instance variable, a class variable, and 
 a class instance variable?

9. Describe indexed instance variables vs. named instance variables.

10. How do you access indexed instance variables?

11. What is a meta-class, and what objects are instances of meta class?

12. What is an abstract class?  Can you name an example in Smalltalk?

13. How does Smalltalk support multi-tasking?

14. Name some examples of how Smalltalk is oriented toward single users?
How can these problems be approached or overcome?

15. Suppose you were offered the choice of two tasks with the same tight deadline:
                                (1) Write a Smalltalk to C++ cross compiler
                                (2) Write a C++ to Smalltalk cross compiler.
                     
                        Which task would you choose and why?

16. Name some of Smalltalk's shortcomings.

17. What is the value of n after the following code is executed? 
                 | n |
                 n := Dictionary new.
                 n at: #one put: 1.
                     
                 Evalutate the coding style of the above Smalltalk code.

18. In which of the following languages can the programmer know the type of 
 data a variable will refer to at runtime:
                        C, C++, Smalltalk

19. Which of the following phrases could be applied to Smalltalk?
untyped, statically typed, dynamically typed, strongly typed, weakly typed 

20. What is meant by the word "binding" with respect to data elements?

21. Most people would agree that it is inherently easier to implement a 
 Dictionary class in Smalltalk than in C/C++.  Any reasonable C++ 
 implementation would also be trickier to use.  Why?