Okay ... I've got another little rant...
Smalltalk improves developer productivity ... pure and simple ... the reason
that developing in Smalltalk is fun is that there is very little that gets in
between the developer and the solution of a problem ... the debugger, inspector
and all of the tools mean that a developer can focus on the problem at hand ...
the dynamic nature of Smalltalk means that I can add instance variables and
change interfaces without having to fight the compiler or the tools ... or lose
track of what I am doing ....
With that said (here comes the rant:) ... the _enterprise_ is not necessarily
interested in developer productivity...productive developers is way down the
list for the enterprise ... just look at the waste (not just in software) in a
typical corporation ... (end of rant) ...
Smaller companies (not at the enterprise level) _are_ interested in developer
productivity, so that should be the sweet spot for Smalltalk and there is work
to be done to make Smalltalk more attractive to those Smaller companies and it
seems that Pharo is headed in the right direction to become more attractive ...
Note that many development groups within the enterprise operate like smaller
companies, it's just that a CTO of a Fortune 500 company isn't going to
wholesale switch his company from using Java to using Smalltalk (at least not
this year:)...
Oh and GemStone also has enterprise customers who don't necessarily advertise
their Smalltalk success stories.
Dale
On Dec 6, 2010, at 11:00 PM, laurent laffont wrote:
I agree on the feeling, I only think we all miss a very important
tactical point here: in what realm is Smalltalk superior to other
technologies?
Fun :)
Laurent
The issue some cool and kicking creatures could have been done is not
enough, we need also to be certain we can get newcomers and have them
quickly up to speed in doing so. _That_ has lead other ('younger')
languages to their present status.
--
Cesar Rabak
