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Can anyone provide a suggestion on what to use to learn Smalltalk under Windows? The article mentions both Squeak and Pharo, of which only I've used Squeak brie

by barik 14y ago

Can anyone provide a suggestion on what to use to learn Smalltalk under Windows? The article mentions both Squeak and Pharo, of which only I've used Squeak briefly in college, but there I really had a hard time with the interface. At least I felt like I completely hosed my Smalltalk VM more than once. I have not tried Pharo. It appears that there is also Dolphin Smalltalk. Thanks!

cwp 14y ago
Squeak, Pharo, VisualWorks and Dolphin will all work fine on Windows. Squeak and Pharo (and VisualWorks to a lesser degree) have non-standard UIs that will be (a little) unfamiliar to Windows users. Dolphin's UI should be the most familiar.
stcredzero 14y ago
I've used Squeak briefly in college, but there I really had a hard time with the interface. Well, they have a "burn the diskpacks" philosophy, so the interface is very different and changes a lot of conventions. At least I felt like I completely hosed my Smalltalk VM more than once. This is something very different and weird you'd have to get used to. Hosing your VM is actually no big deal. There's a way to recover from that quickly without losing any source code changes. I would try Pharo. Dolphin was a nice environment, but that was so long ago. (Since Smalltalk gives you the power to do anything, even with your meta-level, it >has< to work like this. Otherwise, people would feel timid about manipulating their meta-level.)
bromagosa 14y ago
Check out Amber! It's browser-based! The online ProfStef tutorial (which is based on Pharo's ProfStef tutorial) is quite comprehensive: http://amber-lang.net/learn.html http://amber-lang.net/learn.html
fusiongyro 14y ago
Start with Pharo.
radiowave 14y ago
At this point, I'd say Pharo is the most actively developed, and the most polished, of the open source Smalltalk implementations. There's been a fair amount of work cleaning up the UI since they forked from Squeak, and the free ebook "Pharo By Example" has a good overview of the UI and development tools in the opening chapter. http://www.pharobyexample.org/ http://www.pharobyexample.org/

by barik 14y ago

cwp 14y ago

Squeak, Pharo, VisualWorks and Dolphin will all work fine on Windows. Squeak and Pharo (and VisualWorks to a lesser degree) have non-standard UIs that will be (a little) unfamiliar to Windows users. Dolphin's UI should be the most familiar.

stcredzero 14y ago

I've used Squeak briefly in college, but there I really had a hard time with the interface. Well, they have a "burn the diskpacks" philosophy, so the interface is very different and changes a lot of conventions. At least I felt like I completely hosed my Smalltalk VM more than once. This is something very different and weird you'd have to get used to. Hosing your VM is actually no big deal. There's a way to recover from that quickly without losing any source code changes. I would try Pharo. Dolphin was a nice environment, but that was so long ago. (Since Smalltalk gives you the power to do anything, even with your meta-level, it >has< to work like this. Otherwise, people would feel timid about manipulating their meta-level.)

bromagosa 14y ago

Check out Amber! It's browser-based! The online ProfStef tutorial (which is based on Pharo's ProfStef tutorial) is quite comprehensive: http://amber-lang.net/learn.html http://amber-lang.net/learn.html

fusiongyro 14y ago

Start with Pharo.

radiowave 14y ago

At this point, I'd say Pharo is the most actively developed, and the most polished, of the open source Smalltalk implementations. There's been a fair amount of work cleaning up the UI since they forked from Squeak, and the free ebook "Pharo By Example" has a good overview of the UI and development tools in the opening chapter. http://www.pharobyexample.org/ http://www.pharobyexample.org/