Using a fully relective image based system like various Smalltalks provide can be very disconcerting at first when you are used to files. I wasn't particularly

Using a fully relective image based system like various Smalltalks provide can be very disconcerting at first when you are used to files. I wasn't particularly comfortable when I started. It was new, foreign and none of my tools that I was used to worked. I couldnt find all instances of string 'XYZ' and replace it with 'ZYX' in the ways I was used to and it bothered me but if you give a system like smalltalk enough time, you will see the advantages. I have a hard time now when I'm working in ruby, perl or any other language where I don't have a debugger that can halt at any point in running code so I can examine everything about it: all my data, code, everything. I can run snippets of code against that data to verify results and then update my code right then, hit proceed and my bug is fixed. I never liked debuggers before smalltalk and now I know why, most debuggers are just too limited. I remember the glorious C days of finding the suspected cause of a bug and then recompling to test to make sure it was it. I remember the web app development days of logging and print statements. What I have now when I do web development in Seaside is the ability to drop a breakpoint into any location in my code, get the debugger and quickly see, test and fix any issues I'm having. I love it and don't want to go back. There are, however, tons of things I want to change about Smalltalk and the various communities that surround it, but for me, the core experience is second to none that I have ever experienced.