personally I found it very depressing when I saw the age of smalltalk. At first it looked me so innovative that I thought it was way more recent than my language of choice at the time python. I even thought that it copied a lot of python. It was a shock to find out its true age.
Now I got this feeling that software technology is moving backward . I want my illusion back please :D ________________________________ From: Jordi Delgado <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, 18 October 2012, 21:56 Subject: Re: [Pharo-project] what is your pharo story? I agree, but OTH my experience is somewhat different. When you teach thisContext and some well chosen examples of what you can do with it, students usually are amazed. Then you challenge them to do the same in other languages, and they have no clue of where to start (you know, Java and C++, maybe some Python). The really great coup de grace is when you tell them that that was invented 40 years ago. And that the Binding example they thought was so cool is from a 1981 magazine article (Peter Deutsch's "Building Control Structures..." from Byte aug.'81). Smalltalk has its merits, and it deserves a place among XXIst century advanced languages. But it also has a history. And a beautiful one, if you ask... Bests, Jordi > + 1 > > > I think that the examples related with stuff invented 30 years ago will > > depend on the audience. > > Most programmers, young ones in particular, have a deep lack of knowledge > > about the history of technology , they barely know about the tools they use > > everyday, and they don't have interest in learning about them either. So > > saying to them that Smalltalk invented BitBlt, is like talking them about > > punched cards. At least that is my experience. >
