5 ms·

Smalltalk on the JVM

99 points by jxub 8y ago

strlen 8y ago
This is really interesting as HotSpot (OpenJDK, Oracle Java) has its origin in a Smalltalk VM (Strong Talk), while Eclipse started its life as a Smalltalk IDE. Glad to see this come full circle.
- sorokod 8y ago
  Ah Visual Age, how I loved/hated you.
jamesladd 8y ago
Hi There, I'm the creator and maintainer of Redline.st This project has stalled right now because of other commitments. However, should there be renewed interested I would continue its development. - James.
- hboon 8y ago
  When you are ready again, I expect my t-shirt. Will pay again :)
M_Bakhtiari 8y ago
Aren't those icons from BeOS?
- eeks 8y ago
  Yes they are.
baldfat 8y ago
Smalltalk and Racket are two languages I recomend to anyone wanting to learn a new language just for self-education sake. Now running Smalltalk on JVM I can't think why I would go down that road.
- uhoreg 8y ago
  Why do you recommend Racket over one of the other lisps?
  - chriswarbo 8y ago
    I'm not the parent, but "lisps" covers a very large part of the language design space, including languages which have almost nothing in common with each other (e.g. Dylan doesn't use s-expressions, Carp uses static types and manual memory management, etc.). I would narrow this down to the "major" Lisp languages/standards, which pretty much means Common Lisp, Clojure, Scheme and Racket. Out of these Scheme has a history of use for teaching (e.g. SICP) and Racket has a history of use in research (Racket used to be called Programming Language Theory Scheme, AKA PLT Scheme). Personally I'd recommend those wanting to learn "a lisp" to try a Scheme implementation, and Racket is a particularly good Scheme implementation (with lots of other good stuff built on top too, like support for creating custom languages).
  - baldfat 8y ago
    Racket has a few big things going for it. 1) It was designed to teach and the "How to Design Programs 2md Edition" is the best book I have ever gone through for programming. (Also the most dense). 2) Racket is usable. I am now using Racket as a first choice. It is a joy to use. I can make my program and make it an executable in one line of code. So simple and its strongest reason to use the language. 3) The mind trust. It has the who's who of the academic Scheme and Lisp world. It is also the most practical. Racket is special because it is so well thought out. 4) It is plain old fun. It reminded me of when I first learned Python but with so much easier ways to share your program.
    - lispm 8y ago
      > I can make my program and make it an executable in one line of code. Many Lisp implementations do that - even native. Personally I think the Racket IDE sucks. Big. It's slow and buggy. On my Mac it is barely usable. The interactive response is extremely poor.
irascible 8y ago
Why not javascript?

99 points by jxub 8y ago

This is really interesting as HotSpot (OpenJDK, Oracle Java) has its origin in a Smalltalk VM (Strong Talk), while Eclipse started its life as a Smalltalk IDE. Glad to see this come full circle.

sorokod 8y ago
Ah Visual Age, how I loved/hated you.

jamesladd 8y ago

Hi There, I'm the creator and maintainer of Redline.st This project has stalled right now because of other commitments. However, should there be renewed interested I would continue its development. - James.

hboon 8y ago
When you are ready again, I expect my t-shirt. Will pay again :)

M_Bakhtiari 8y ago

Aren't those icons from BeOS?

eeks 8y ago
Yes they are.

baldfat 8y ago

Smalltalk and Racket are two languages I recomend to anyone wanting to learn a new language just for self-education sake. Now running Smalltalk on JVM I can't think why I would go down that road.

uhoreg 8y ago
Why do you recommend Racket over one of the other lisps?
- chriswarbo 8y ago
  I'm not the parent, but "lisps" covers a very large part of the language design space, including languages which have almost nothing in common with each other (e.g. Dylan doesn't use s-expressions, Carp uses static types and manual memory management, etc.). I would narrow this down to the "major" Lisp languages/standards, which pretty much means Common Lisp, Clojure, Scheme and Racket. Out of these Scheme has a history of use for teaching (e.g. SICP) and Racket has a history of use in research (Racket used to be called Programming Language Theory Scheme, AKA PLT Scheme). Personally I'd recommend those wanting to learn "a lisp" to try a Scheme implementation, and Racket is a particularly good Scheme implementation (with lots of other good stuff built on top too, like support for creating custom languages).
- baldfat 8y ago
  Racket has a few big things going for it. 1) It was designed to teach and the "How to Design Programs 2md Edition" is the best book I have ever gone through for programming. (Also the most dense). 2) Racket is usable. I am now using Racket as a first choice. It is a joy to use. I can make my program and make it an executable in one line of code. So simple and its strongest reason to use the language. 3) The mind trust. It has the who's who of the academic Scheme and Lisp world. It is also the most practical. Racket is special because it is so well thought out. 4) It is plain old fun. It reminded me of when I first learned Python but with so much easier ways to share your program.
  - lispm 8y ago
    > I can make my program and make it an executable in one line of code. Many Lisp implementations do that - even native. Personally I think the Racket IDE sucks. Big. It's slow and buggy. On my Mac it is barely usable. The interactive response is extremely poor.

irascible 8y ago

Why not javascript?