An open point is bound by defining an intercepting method along the path of classes, which is searched during the Smalltalk method lookup process. The most specific of these methods is the binding of the open point, and the most general of the methods plays the role as the default of the open point. In case a binding propagates the message to super, the binding may actually be a combination of a set of methods. This combination may, of course, also involve the default binding.
Due to the incrementality and the workspace-orientation of the Smalltalk environment, Smalltalk supports a late binding of the open points. Consequently, the Smalltalk environment is pretty close to supporting true open points. It might be useful to be able to distinguish normal messages from messages that are intended to serve as open points. As mentioned in section 1 this also would draw a line between internal and external aspects. Such a distinction could be made by supporting a particular announcement or documentation facility for intendedly open messages.