Comments on: Remember Smalltalk?

By: Jaspreet

Jaspreet — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:47:23 +0000

One of the organizations i know is moving from Smalltalk to Java since they feel smalltalk will die – tomorrow or day after – but death is certain.
Sorry state of affair in this case – i feel which ever architecture you develop in Java can be developed (and in a better way) in Smalltalk. Still, because ppl feel the future of smalltalk is bleak with only a handful of organizations supporting it, “businessmen” try to move to a widely used platform.
I personally love smalltalk because of its ‘transparency’ which isn’t there in any other language – i can ‘see’ how and why a thing is working the way it is. the dev tools it provides are unmatched and performance is amazing.

By: Remember Smalltalk? « Crab Log

Remember Smalltalk? « Crab Log — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:46:16 +0000

[...] Fonte: http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_driver/2008/10/09/remember-smalltalk/ [...]

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:40:26 +0000

Smalltalk beats Ruby because the syntax looks nothing like C and there is so little syntax to remember and type in. It also beats Ruby because it avoids the out dated and inflexible currency of source files, instead using the flexible and powerful concept of in-memory images which can be usefully snapshotted at any point in time.

Smalltalk is an enabler. It doesn’t get in the way of writing code by overloading you with syntax and masses of typing. Anything you type in Smalltalk does something rather than just being there to pacify the compiler. It also beats all other languages by encouraging the development of code during a live debugging session. You never have to stop, edit, compile and re-run.

By: Joe Barnhart

Joe Barnhart — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 18:48:42 +0000

At the company where I work, we have used Smalltalk for 19 years. Our tiny team of programmers has beat the pants off of competitors who employ teams 100 times our size. Is it because they use C++ and we use Smalltalk? Maybe not, but we’re sticking to Smalltalk anyway…

By: Smalltalk is Dead? Long Live Smalltalk « (gem)Stone Soup

Smalltalk is Dead? Long Live Smalltalk « (gem)Stone Soup — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:45:05 +0000

[...] Driver wrote: So I’m not suggesting that we are going to see a massive renaissance in Smalltalk use in the [...]

By: Jay Godse

Jay Godse — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:38:34 +0000

I programmed in a derivative of Smalltalk called RPL which was used in the ObjecTime tool. It was an absolutely fantastic language, so I guess that Smalltalk is probably not much different.

Smalltalk’s problem is that its main proponents are usually 50-something old guys with no sex appeal. (I’m getting close, so I know what I’m talking about).

Ruby is great because it does a lot of what Smalltalk does. Ruby beats out Smalltalk because the syntax looks more like C than like make or Prolog. It also beats out Smalltalk because it deals in the well-understood currency of files and databases, rather than massive passivated images. Not that one is better than the other, but more people understand files and databases rather than images.

To fix this, Smalltalk needs hip and sexy new websites built with Seaside with lots of young-ish 20-something developers and users obviously succeeding with it. They also have to get a Seaside/Smalltalk book published by Pragmatic Programmers.

By: Vojtech Merunka

Vojtech Merunka — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:23:12 +0000

Hello from Prague, the heart of Europe!

I stayed to teach Smalltalk since 1993 and am very happy about this information. Each academic year, we produce a small group of new Smalltalkers in the Czech Republic.

Also, there is a growing interest for Smalltalk in Ukraine and Russia.

But my friends, we need a change. Smalltalk must have sofisticated CASE tools, business process simulation tools, large development environments etc. etc. etc. This a bit different class from current VisualWorks, STX and Squeak

Vojta,
the old Smalltalker

By: Keith Link

Keith Link — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:31:57 +0000

As another Smalltalker, I too would like to see its return someday. For now I would like to see more use of Smalltalk like constructs in Java (Groovy). It would be much easier to move someone to Smalltalk if they were already using Groovy. It was a no brainier for someone using C or C++ to move to Java. I remember back when all the C and C++ people wouldn’t touch a language that ran on a VM. Now, I think 90% of people think the VMs started with Java.

Java did a couple of things right, besides the timing to become so successful.
Built lots if free open reusable libraries in the form of jar files (REUSE…).
Huge amount of PR and R&D

By: Serge Stinckwich

Serge Stinckwich — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:47:38 +0000

I you want to learn Smalltalk with the Squeak flavor, you can download freely or buy this book: Squeak by example or his french translation : Squeak par l'exemple.

By: Kevin McGuire

Kevin McGuire — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:25:28 +0000

As a long time OTI’er I too miss Smalltalk dearly. The time between thought and running code seemed much shorter than Java. Admittedly the packaging story was a mess and hurt adoption, with Envy/Packager requiring unrealistic extensive and deep knowledge.

The Java marketing was quite clever, being billed as the language for the internet, just as the internet fever was really catching. Nobody understood what that meant though. Remember applets being the solution to delivery of internet apps?

Unfortunately the lesson for me was that the best language doesn’t necessarily win. But I am heartened by the growing return to dynamic languages in general. It may be that its too late for Smalltalk, or that you’d need to fix the packaging story, standardize the libs, and change the name to give it a new life (or is that now called “Ruby”? ).