Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

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Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

啸然
My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Xinyu Liu
Hi,

From its history, its goal(for example the dynabook), its byproduct (for example, the GUI, the trigger of the mouse). Smalltalk and Squeak give us much more than a OS or a programming langugae.

BTW: Have you head of the SqueakNOS recently? Its greate

On 8/8/06, 啸然 <[hidden email]> wrote:
My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.

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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Ramiro Diaz Trepat
In reply to this post by 啸然
I thought a lot about this, because I really like Smalltalk and cannot
understand why so many others don't see in it the beauty I see.
Unfortunately, I did not come to any *serious* conclusion.
Most new languages keep taking ideas from Smalltalk, but as you say,
Smalltalk is really far from being widely accepted.

Some of the important issues, probably are:

1.  The environment.
Most programmers just don't get used to this.  They feel as being
tightly coupled to a feature that, for them, should be decoupled.
This probably holds "some" truth, since being as it is, smalltalk has
to do a lot of things that are typically an OS responsibility.  OSs
are usually more mature and resolve very well a lot of things.
The other drawback that most programmers see in using smalltalk with
its environment is that the GUI is not integrated to the OS GUI.  This
is not true, particularly if you use some of the commercial Smalltalk
dialects that support it, but again, most programmers I know don't
know about this.  They always think of Smalltalk with it's
environment.  Most of them even think that you can't even build a
server that runs without the GUI (headless).
So, a lot of this might be due to disinformation

2. Openness
For a language to be successful today, it has to be open,
distributable and then accepted by "the community".  This is the case
of Python, Ruby, etc.  Java is seriously suffering from not being
open, and now, they will probably open it.
I have not followed it closely, but I believe Squeak had some
licencing issues until not so long ago, and the other free Smalltalks
(GNU) are not as good as Squeak.

Probably the list is longer, and everyone may not agree with me on those issues.
What I sadly believe by now is that, if Smalltalk didn't make it in
the last 25 years, it will not make it in the future. There is no
reason for this to change, I believe that smalltalk has not had many
substantial changes in the last decade).
So my plan is sticking to this small but talented and friendly
community :)  I don't think it is going to change a lot.
The biggest risk of having a small community (squeak), probably, is
that guys who really know Squeak, which are a few, might get tired of
hacking enormous amounts of hours for it to evolve little by little,
for the rest of the fellows.
For me, Squeak evolves a lot, but it is still a little/slow evolution.
 This is also a consequence of the small community.  If you see
squeak's GUI and dev tools (editors, debugger, etc.) they really look
at least a decade old, and are behind the tools available for other
languages.  This might also be an issue about the little acceptance.
Just my 2 cents.
Bye


r.


On 8/8/06, 啸然 <[hidden email]> wrote:
> My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as
> a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
>
>
>

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Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Ramiro Diaz Trepat
Another thing.
I believe Seaside is giving smalltalk the biggest opportunity of an
overcome it had in years.
May be Seaside can spark the long awaited adoption :)


On 8/8/06, Ramiro Diaz Trepat <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I thought a lot about this, because I really like Smalltalk and cannot
> understand why so many others don't see in it the beauty I see.
> Unfortunately, I did not come to any *serious* conclusion.
> Most new languages keep taking ideas from Smalltalk, but as you say,
> Smalltalk is really far from being widely accepted.
>
> Some of the important issues, probably are:
>
> 1.  The environment.
> Most programmers just don't get used to this.  They feel as being
> tightly coupled to a feature that, for them, should be decoupled.
> This probably holds "some" truth, since being as it is, smalltalk has
> to do a lot of things that are typically an OS responsibility.  OSs
> are usually more mature and resolve very well a lot of things.
> The other drawback that most programmers see in using smalltalk with
> its environment is that the GUI is not integrated to the OS GUI.  This
> is not true, particularly if you use some of the commercial Smalltalk
> dialects that support it, but again, most programmers I know don't
> know about this.  They always think of Smalltalk with it's
> environment.  Most of them even think that you can't even build a
> server that runs without the GUI (headless).
> So, a lot of this might be due to disinformation
>
> 2. Openness
> For a language to be successful today, it has to be open,
> distributable and then accepted by "the community".  This is the case
> of Python, Ruby, etc.  Java is seriously suffering from not being
> open, and now, they will probably open it.
> I have not followed it closely, but I believe Squeak had some
> licencing issues until not so long ago, and the other free Smalltalks
> (GNU) are not as good as Squeak.
>
> Probably the list is longer, and everyone may not agree with me on those issues.
> What I sadly believe by now is that, if Smalltalk didn't make it in
> the last 25 years, it will not make it in the future. There is no
> reason for this to change, I believe that smalltalk has not had many
> substantial changes in the last decade).
> So my plan is sticking to this small but talented and friendly
> community :)  I don't think it is going to change a lot.
> The biggest risk of having a small community (squeak), probably, is
> that guys who really know Squeak, which are a few, might get tired of
> hacking enormous amounts of hours for it to evolve little by little,
> for the rest of the fellows.
> For me, Squeak evolves a lot, but it is still a little/slow evolution.
>  This is also a consequence of the small community.  If you see
> squeak's GUI and dev tools (editors, debugger, etc.) they really look
> at least a decade old, and are behind the tools available for other
> languages.  This might also be an issue about the little acceptance.
> Just my 2 cents.
> Bye
>
>
> r.
>
>
> On 8/8/06, 啸然 <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as
> > a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Beginners mailing list
> > [hidden email]
> > http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners
> >
> >
> >
>

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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Brad Fuller
In reply to this post by 啸然
ХȻ wrote:
My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
Another reason is because no one else is. Most people are followers, not leaders.


--
Brad Fuller
Sonaural Audio Studio
+1 (408) 799-6124
Hear us online www.Sonaural.com
See me on O'Reilly

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RE: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Ramon Leon-5
In reply to this post by Ramiro Diaz Trepat
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email]
> [mailto:[hidden email]] On
> Behalf Of Ramiro Diaz Trepat
> Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 4:21 PM
> To: A friendly place to get answers to even the most basic
> questions about Squeak.
> Subject: Re: Re: [Newbies] Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?
>
> Another thing.
> I believe Seaside is giving smalltalk the biggest opportunity
> of an overcome it had in years.
> May be Seaside can spark the long awaited adoption :)

It already is!

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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

rkitts
In reply to this post by 啸然
Perhaps because it's intended audience or purpose has little to do  
with what "real" programmers are interested in? Which would be a  
shame because it seems pretty clear that whatever those interests are  
they haven't done a great deal to advance the practice very much.

---Rick

PS: "real" is in quotes up there. No troll intended.

On Aug 8, 2006, at 2:17 AM, 啸然 wrote:

> My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but  
> Smalltalk is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners

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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

tblanchard
In reply to this post by 啸然
Because the primary vendor for Smalltak - ParcPlace Systems, pursued  
a strategy of maximizing profit per user instead of profit overall.  
In its heyday, VisualWorks cost something like $3000 per user and so  
almost nobody could afford to learn it unless they could do it on the  
job at their employer's expense.   Even the academic license was  
something like $500 - pretty steep for a student.

Nevertheless, IBM had invested heavily in Smalltalk as a replacement  
for COBOL.  IBM had VisualAge Smalltalk running on every piece of  
hardware they sold from Mainframes down to PCs.  The value  
proposition they intended to offer was that companies could write  
systems in VAST, then buy hardware according to their scaling  
requirements.  Outgrow your system?  Just move up to a larger  
machine.  They could have been very successful with this, but Sun  
released Java and made it clear they would spend BIG on promoting it  
to make it successful.  IBM didn't see competing as sensible and  
figured it would be cheaper to just build Java tools using VAST and  
use that for their scalable app platform.  This was seen as a win  
because IBM would not have to spend to promote their new development  
platform.

Java gained ground because anyone who wanted to try it could just  
download it and learn it.  This wasn't possible with Smalltalk - so  
nobody learned it.

At least, this is how things looked to me as an enterprise systems  
architect in the mid-1990's.


On Aug 8, 2006, at 2:17 AM, 啸然 wrote:

> My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but  
> Smalltalk is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
> _______________________________________________
> Beginners mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/beginners

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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Klaus D. Witzel
On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 07:17:58 +0200, Todd Blanchard wrote:

> Because the primary vendor for Smalltak - ParcPlace Systems, pursued a  
> strategy of maximizing profit per user instead of profit overall.  In  
> its heyday, VisualWorks cost something like $3000 per user and so almost  
> nobody could afford to learn it unless they could do it on the job at  
> their employer's expense.   Even the academic license was something like  
> $500 - pretty steep for a student.
>
...
> Java gained ground because anyone who wanted to try it could just  
> download it and learn it.  This wasn't possible with Smalltalk - so  
> nobody learned it.

See, it was necessary to attach a very large price tag to Smalltalk for  
getting an idea of Java's value (value := price tag in this case ;-)  
Seriously, I believe this cause-and-effect.

> At least, this is how things looked to me as an enterprise systems  
> architect in the mid-1990's.

I agree, same experience here. But the story about VAST and COBOL was:  
sales rep #1 "what's this small talk thingy good for?"; sales rep #2  
"replacing COBOL?!". The COBOL landscape was, by that time, the largest  
and replacing any COBOL system by anything else meant more $$$ for the  
sales rep than she/he could imagine to earn by selling something else.

/Klaus

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Re:OS vs Language

florent trolat
In reply to this post by rkitts

>
>
>> My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk
>> is as a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
Newbies list, so all is possible ;-) !

I think the question for us is : what's the difference between a
programming language and an OS?

OS for me is different of a programming language (hardware aspect, file
manager,network and security layout....)! it's not your opinion... why?


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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

keith1y
In reply to this post by tblanchard

>
> Java gained ground because anyone who wanted to try it could just
> download it and learn it.  This wasn't possible with Smalltalk - so
> nobody learned it.
>
> At least, this is how things looked to me as an enterprise systems
> architect in the mid-1990's.
This was the picture pre 1995 I think, since then...

Other smalltalk vendors came into the market. Smalltalk Agents was about
300 pounds in 1994. Squeak was free in 1996, Dolphin was free initially
also in about 1996. When I wanted to write an industrial strength
project I downloaded ST/X for free and although some sources were
missing I could certainly learn enough and demonstrate enough to justify
using it on a project.

If you ask any programmer in the UK, "what about Dolphin" I think that
you will get a blank look. Its all down to marketing marketing and more
marketing. Even my grannie probably knows that Java is a progamming
language.

Having said this, because Smalltalk is relatively easy to learn once you
are over the initial learning cliff, people have not seen the value in
good documentation.

Pick any product that you wish to learn, go to your local book shop and
see what is there. "The Pragmatic PRogrammer" was a book about ruby, and
that book single handedly launched ruby into the mainstream, without the
hype that surrounded  java. Smalltalk has lacked bookshelf presence, and
I think that as soon as Seaside gets a book out there that O'Reilly puts
an animal on the front of it the better.

just my 2p

Keith
 

               
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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Keith Hodges-2
In reply to this post by tblanchard

>
> Java gained ground because anyone who wanted to try it could just
> download it and learn it.  This wasn't possible with Smalltalk - so
> nobody learned it.
>
> At least, this is how things looked to me as an enterprise systems
> architect in the mid-1990's.
This was the picture pre 1995 I think, since then...

Other smalltalk vendors came into the market. Smalltalk Agents was about
300 pounds in 1994. Squeak was free in 1996, Dolphin was free initially
also in about 1996. When I wanted to write an industrial strength
project I downloaded ST/X for free and although some sources were
missing I could certainly learn enough and demonstrate enough to justify
using it on a project.

If you ask any programmer in the UK, "what about Dolphin" I think that
you will get a blank look. Its all down to marketing marketing and more
marketing. Even my grannie probably knows that Java is a progamming
language.

Having said this, because Smalltalk is relatively easy to learn once you
are over the initial learning cliff, people have not seen the value in
good documentation.

Pick any product that you wish to learn, go to your local book shop and
see what is there. "The Pragmatic PRogrammer" was a book about ruby, and
that book single handedly launched ruby into the mainstream, without the
hype that surrounded  java. Smalltalk has lacked bookshelf presence, and
I think that as soon as Seaside gets a book out there that O'Reilly puts
an animal on the front of it the better.

just my 2p

Keith



       
       
               
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Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Michael Haupt-3
Hi,

another 2 cents. Albeit I agree with what Keith writes, I doubt it's
really just marketing. I believe that is true for practitioners, for
whom I do not have any experience. I do have some experience with
students, though, both at undergraduate and graduate level.

Students have mostly accepted it as a powerful programming language
and appreciated its elegance and simplicity, and the standard
library's strength.

They have objected to three things: dynamic typing, access control,
and the image.

Dynamic typing... well, once they were shown how programming works in
a Smalltalk environment (incremental application development,
debugging, inspecting, ...), they got over that. They even accepted
that message parameters' types are "declared" using naming
conventions. ;-)

Access control... again, once they were introduced to the idioms, it
went better, though some of them still had a bad feeling in the
stomach. They agreed with member variables being private by default,
but they objected to all messages being public.

The image... *that* I could not fully convince them of so far. Maybe
it's my fault. If anybody has a great convincing collection of slides,
I'd love to see it. - Anyway, I have the feeling that what they
disliked most about it was that the concept of "compilation unit" or
"unit of execution" is not as definite as in, say, Java, which they
know better.

Best,

Michael
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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Keith Hodges-2
Indeed, in ST/X it is possible to write a method in C and have it
dynamically compiled an loaded into the running image. There is your
"compilation unit", albeit at a smaller level of granularity than most
are used to; the rest of the image is "runtime-engine".

I think that 10 years ago people sneared at runtime libraries over 1Mb,
now with average user software like Mozilla which include
"images/vms/runtimes/memory managers" of their own, I think that the
concept is more acceptable.

It seems to me that the acceptability criteria appears to be related to
operating system integration. If microsoft adds a vm runtime engine to
the OS, then it gains instant acceptability. Java promised the same.
Smalltalkers tend to ignore the OS for the most part, which does not
endear the faithful Microsoft Certified Professional. (But it does make
for robust code if the VM is robust... now that should have been the
killer selling point on Windows for sure!)

Again in ST/X, if you want to you can manage all of your code as source
in CVS and have it compiled and load on start up into a running
application, without an image per se. All things are possible. But who
knows about these things, not every IT professional has time to try
these things out, which is where I think the books come in. I wonder how
many armchair java programmers there are?

Keith

> The image... *that* I could not fully convince them of so far. Maybe
> it's my fault. If anybody has a great convincing collection of slides,
> I'd love to see it. - Anyway, I have the feeling that what they
> disliked most about it was that the concept of "compilation unit" or
> "unit of execution" is not as definite as in, say, Java, which they
> know better.
>
> Best,
>
> Michael
> _


       
       
               
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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

啸然
In reply to this post by Ramiro Diaz Trepat
>I thought a lot about this, because I really like Smalltalk and cannot
>understand why so many others don't see in it the beauty I see.
>Unfortunately, I did not come to any *serious* conclusion.
>Most new languages keep taking ideas from Smalltalk, but as you say,
>Smalltalk is really far from being widely accepted.

Smalltalk is a wonderful language which influenced software developing gravely.
1. GUI -> MacOS, m$ Windows, X Windows....
2. OOP -> Self, Java, Python, Ruby......

I think the thought of Smalltalk should be the right way of developing software.

>Some of the important issues, probably are:
>
>1.  The environment.
>Most programmers just don't get used to this.  They feel as being
>tightly coupled to a feature that, for them, should be decoupled.
>This probably holds "some" truth, since being as it is, smalltalk has
>to do a lot of things that are typically an OS responsibility.  OSs
>are usually more mature and resolve very well a lot of things.
>The other drawback that most programmers see in using smalltalk with
>its environment is that the GUI is not integrated to the OS GUI.  This
>is not true, particularly if you use some of the commercial Smalltalk
>dialects that support it, but again, most programmers I know don't
>know about this.  They always think of Smalltalk with it's
>environment.  Most of them even think that you can't even build a
>server that runs without the GUI (headless).
>So, a lot of this might be due to disinformation

It's looks more like a OS that Smalltalk has it's own environment.
But, an OS creator would not like to see an "OS" in his OS.
So, Smalltalk itself should be an OS, not only a language.

>2. Openness
>For a language to be successful today, it has to be open,
>distributable and then accepted by "the community".  This is the case
>of Python, Ruby, etc.  Java is seriously suffering from not being
>open, and now, they will probably open it.
>I have not followed it closely, but I believe Squeak had some
>licencing issues until not so long ago, and the other free Smalltalks
>(GNU) are not as good as Squeak.

Squeak is open source for several years, but the situation has not changed so much.

>Probably the list is longer, and everyone may not agree with me on those issues.
>What I sadly believe by now is that, if Smalltalk didn't make it in
>the last 25 years, it will not make it in the future. There is no
>reason for this to change, I believe that smalltalk has not had many
>substantial changes in the last decade).
>So my plan is sticking to this small but talented and friendly
>community :)  I don't think it is going to change a lot.
>The biggest risk of having a small community (squeak), probably, is
>that guys who really know Squeak, which are a few, might get tired of
>hacking enormous amounts of hours for it to evolve little by little,
>for the rest of the fellows.
>For me, Squeak evolves a lot, but it is still a little/slow evolution.
> This is also a consequence of the small community.  If you see
>squeak's GUI and dev tools (editors, debugger, etc.) they really look
>at least a decade old, and are behind the tools available for other
>languages.  This might also be an issue about the little acceptance.
>Just my 2 cents.
>Bye

Maybe it's a way that let Smalltalk to be an OS which not base on the concept of OS in existence.

Smalltalk put all things into one image file, so it needn't "include", "import", or "use" instruction.

I imagine such a Smalltalk OS:
1.  Creat a file system for this OS according to Smalltalk class structure( a tree ), it could be called "OOFS",
and divide up the image file to small block( a bytecode file, like an exe file) which belong a class.
Load a block file when our programs need, instead of load one image file at bootup time.
2. Improve the memory management of Smalltalk (GC), so that it could deal with the realtime requiring.

This is my jejune idea.

Xiaoran


在06-8-9,Ramiro Diaz Trepat <[hidden email]> 写道:
I thought a lot about this, because I really like Smalltalk and cannot
understand why so many others don't see in it the beauty I see.
Unfortunately, I did not come to any *serious* conclusion.
Most new languages keep taking ideas from Smalltalk, but as you say,
Smalltalk is really far from being widely accepted.

Some of the important issues, probably are:

1.  The environment.
Most programmers just don't get used to this.  They feel as being
tightly coupled to a feature that, for them, should be decoupled.
This probably holds "some" truth, since being as it is, smalltalk has
to do a lot of things that are typically an OS responsibility.  OSs
are usually more mature and resolve very well a lot of things.
The other drawback that most programmers see in using smalltalk with
its environment is that the GUI is not integrated to the OS GUI.  This
is not true, particularly if you use some of the commercial Smalltalk
dialects that support it, but again, most programmers I know don't
know about this.  They always think of Smalltalk with it's
environment.  Most of them even think that you can't even build a
server that runs without the GUI (headless).
So, a lot of this might be due to disinformation

2. Openness
For a language to be successful today, it has to be open,
distributable and then accepted by "the community".  This is the case
of Python, Ruby, etc.  Java is seriously suffering from not being
open, and now, they will probably open it.
I have not followed it closely, but I believe Squeak had some
licencing issues until not so long ago, and the other free Smalltalks
(GNU) are not as good as Squeak.

Probably the list is longer, and everyone may not agree with me on those issues.
What I sadly believe by now is that, if Smalltalk didn't make it in
the last 25 years, it will not make it in the future. There is no
reason for this to change, I believe that smalltalk has not had many
substantial changes in the last decade).
So my plan is sticking to this small but talented and friendly
community :)  I don't think it is going to change a lot.
The biggest risk of having a small community (squeak), probably, is
that guys who really know Squeak, which are a few, might get tired of
hacking enormous amounts of hours for it to evolve little by little,
for the rest of the fellows.
For me, Squeak evolves a lot, but it is still a little/slow evolution.
This is also a consequence of the small community.  If you see
squeak's GUI and dev tools (editors, debugger, etc.) they really look
at least a decade old, and are behind the tools available for other
languages.  This might also be an issue about the little acceptance.
Just my 2 cents.
Bye


r.


On 8/8/06, 啸然 <[hidden email]> wrote:
> My opinion is, the power of Smalltalk is same as an OS, but Smalltalk is as
> a programming language. The Smalltalk should be an OS.
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Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

mwkohout
In reply to this post by keith1y
When I get home(and if the weather isn't too nice) I play with Squeak.
 But when I go to work, I write Java(like a lot of people on this
list, I'd imagine).

One of the things that prevents me from even considering it at work is
the lack of Oracle driver support.  Of course, I could write that
support myself using named primitives(and I've tried), but the
documentation on how to use all the modern Slang features and tie the
whole thing into XCode is much too sparse.

When this changes I might be able to use squeak for more than just amusement.

On 8/9/06, Keith Hodges <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> >
> > Java gained ground because anyone who wanted to try it could just
> > download it and learn it.  This wasn't possible with Smalltalk - so
> > nobody learned it.
> >
> > At least, this is how things looked to me as an enterprise systems
> > architect in the mid-1990's.
> This was the picture pre 1995 I think, since then...
>
> Other smalltalk vendors came into the market. Smalltalk Agents was about
> 300 pounds in 1994. Squeak was free in 1996, Dolphin was free initially
> also in about 1996. When I wanted to write an industrial strength
> project I downloaded ST/X for free and although some sources were
> missing I could certainly learn enough and demonstrate enough to justify
> using it on a project.
>
> If you ask any programmer in the UK, "what about Dolphin" I think that
> you will get a blank look. Its all down to marketing marketing and more
> marketing. Even my grannie probably knows that Java is a progamming
> language.
>
> Having said this, because Smalltalk is relatively easy to learn once you
> are over the initial learning cliff, people have not seen the value in
> good documentation.
>
> Pick any product that you wish to learn, go to your local book shop and
> see what is there. "The Pragmatic PRogrammer" was a book about ruby, and
> that book single handedly launched ruby into the mainstream, without the
> hype that surrounded  java. Smalltalk has lacked bookshelf presence, and
> I think that as soon as Seaside gets a book out there that O'Reilly puts
> an animal on the front of it the better.
>
> just my 2p
>
> Keith
>
>
>
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Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Klaus D. Witzel
On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:43:46 +0200, Michael Kohout wrote:

> When I get home(and if the weather isn't too nice) I play with Squeak.
>  But when I go to work, I write Java(like a lot of people on this
> list, I'd imagine).

  8-)

> One of the things that prevents me from even considering it at work is
> the lack of Oracle driver support.  Of course, I could write that
> support myself using named primitives(and I've tried), but the
> documentation on how to use all the modern Slang features and tie the
> whole thing into XCode is much too sparse.
>
> When this changes I might be able to use squeak for more than just  
> amusement.

Michael, have you seen the SQLite3 package on SqueakMap. It is more than  
easy to interface an external library from Squeak, no Slang, no C-compiler  
needed (if you don't depend on callbacks). The SQLite3 Squeak code is  
authored for calling into an external library on Mac OS X but it's a  
matter of minutes to change that to MS$ windoze or linux (I know that  
you're using Squeak on OS X...)

Hope that it's a rainy day at your site ;-)

/Klaus

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Re: Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

mwkohout
Thanks for the tip Klaus.

I'll definitely be able to use this on my desktop mac, but it still
doesn't overcome my problems of getting at the company's oracle
databases.  Maybe when I get home today, I'll dust off my nonworking
plugin and ask for help on the vm list( while the docs for squeak
suffer, all the user's help has been really great ).

Mike Kohout
Developer
www.mnscu.edu

On 8/10/06, Klaus D. Witzel <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:43:46 +0200, Michael Kohout wrote:
>
> > When I get home(and if the weather isn't too nice) I play with Squeak.
> >  But when I go to work, I write Java(like a lot of people on this
> > list, I'd imagine).
>
>   8-)
>
> > One of the things that prevents me from even considering it at work is
> > the lack of Oracle driver support.  Of course, I could write that
> > support myself using named primitives(and I've tried), but the
> > documentation on how to use all the modern Slang features and tie the
> > whole thing into XCode is much too sparse.
> >
> > When this changes I might be able to use squeak for more than just
> > amusement.
>
> Michael, have you seen the SQLite3 package on SqueakMap. It is more than
> easy to interface an external library from Squeak, no Slang, no C-compiler
> needed (if you don't depend on callbacks). The SQLite3 Squeak code is
> authored for calling into an external library on Mac OS X but it's a
> matter of minutes to change that to MS$ windoze or linux (I know that
> you're using Squeak on OS X...)
>
> Hope that it's a rainy day at your site ;-)
>
> /Klaus
>
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Re: Re: Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Blake-5
In reply to this post by Klaus D. Witzel
On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:58:54 -0700, Klaus D. Witzel  
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:43:46 +0200, Michael Kohout wrote:
>
>> When I get home(and if the weather isn't too nice) I play with Squeak.
>>  But when I go to work, I write Java(like a lot of people on this
>> list, I'd imagine).
>
>   8-)

I can pretty much choose whatever I want to work in. I'm looking for an  
"in" for Smalltalk, but I have to interact with a lot of MS products....
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Re: Why hasn't Smalltalk been wildly accepted?

Klaus D. Witzel
Hi Blake,

on Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:48:58 +0200, you wrote:

> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:58:54 -0700, Klaus D. Witzel  
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:43:46 +0200, Michael Kohout wrote:
>>
>>> When I get home(and if the weather isn't too nice) I play with Squeak.
>>>  But when I go to work, I write Java(like a lot of people on this
>>> list, I'd imagine).
>>
>>   8-)
>
> I can pretty much choose whatever I want to work in. I'm looking for an  
> "in" for Smalltalk, but I have to interact with a lot of MS products....

Then, how about doing something for the opposite direction, Squeak as a  
COM-server (like MS$ had done the Java extensions in their MSJAVA VM)? See  
for example

- http://www.visoracle.com/squeakfaq/com-activex.html

which mentions the Squeak .NET bridge from SqueakMap.

/Klaus

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