Em 06/12/2010 17:35, Sean P. DeNigris < [email protected] > escreveu:

> csrabak wrote:
> >   e persons  needed about the  same than the Java  colleagues (which
> >  worked a complimentary part of the project) to become proficient
> >   and productive  in Smalltalk.  by  the time I was  "proficient and
> >   productive in Smalltalk," I had
> >  ered the equivalent of an  OS! From threading, to windows, the main
> >  t loop  - all things  that were magically  behind the scenes  in C,
> >  C++, and
> >   Ruby to  an extent (which at the  outer GUI level was  down in the
> >  same ).  Whereas,  it really did take only one  reading to grok the
> >  syntax.
> > 

Well, comparing C, even C++ which normally hasn't automatic garbage 
collection, is somewhat stretching the argument... but; even with those
"idiosyncrasies" as soon the size of the application grows up, these 
perks of Smalltalk quickly become less noticeable, while on the other
hand the fact Smalltalk being dynamic dispatched takes its toll in the 
needing of programmers attention to avoid the attribution of wrong 
objects to instance variables as there is no type checking...

>  csrabak wrote:
> > Smalltalkers  take sometimes  at  face value  certain things  that
> >  clash
> > in al  world: the  famous simplicity of  the syntax  (which Stef's
> > famous  stcard example)  of Smalltalk  is mpletely  flared  by the
> > overwhelming complexity of the class libraries.
> >
>  fact that mastering anything takes time - is orthogonal to the book
> e. The majority of books I  came across in C++ (and needed copies of
> in y office I worked, to the  point where I got a $50 a month Safari
> books cription)  were related to  the language, not the  libraries -
> full  of  ,  gotchas,  and   other  advice  to  not  trip  over  the
> complexities of the uage itself  - before even considering the first
> library!

Sean, once you really get to metal subtleties and other nuances on the
language and syntax appear to bug your team.  Have you ever heard of 
John McSweeney's "Smalltalk ‘Traps’" piece¹?
 
>  ease of use of  a library is a function of the  design skill of the
> ary developers. But I bet you it was much easier to *write* that ary
> than it would  have been in a static language  in a non-live ronment
> ;-)
 
While the libraries are for 'endogenous' use, yes, as soon we need to 
have functionality to put our apps in the same stand as the other 
technologies are right now, the issues start to become all the same...

And them the advantages of Smalltalk as platform vanishes against ones 
more coupled to present technology.  Have you tried to automate an Office
application with any flavor of Smalltalk lately?

Did you see the thread "Is there a good example of an app using SqueakDBX 
to output data?"

All the simplicity of Smalltalk is lost as soon you need to fit the square
peg in the round hole... :-|

my 0.019999...

--
Cesar Rabak


[1] http://www.jmcsweeney.co.uk/computing/m206/traps.doc


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