4 ms·

The Revenge of Smalltalk

16 points by dhenrich 17y ago

tialys 17y ago
Having recently discovered smalltalk from a seasoned developer (with quite a personality to match!), I've come to realize it's an amazing language, and certainly not dead. It's got some very interesting applications in finance, and other high traffic fields, and it's got some really neat tricks that you can carry over to other languages as well. I still don't totally understand the notion that it is dead. In fact, I'd say it might be time to start learning it.
- dhenrich 17y ago
  The reports of Smalltalk's death are greatly exaggerated...
- wglb 17y ago
  Would this be a former Tektronix person turned consultant?
  - avibryant 17y ago
    That could describe a lot of Smalltalkers, couldn't it?
    - wglb 17y ago
      Well, I think so, but I know only one, and possibly met a second one. You?
- cwp 17y ago
  I guess "dead" is a relative term. At one time, Smalltalk seemed poised to be the next big thing in enterprise software. The Smalltalk vendors completely blew that opportunity and Java became the OO language of choice. There's still a significant amount of Smalltalk in banking, insurance and other big custom-software installations, but mostly it's a niche language now. I think the "Smalltalk is dead" meme comes from all the ex-Smalltalkers out there. At one point they worked on some enterprise project in Smalltalk, but then switched over to Java when that became fashionable. They remember Smalltalk fondly, but won't use it for anything "real" anymore. With the rise of the internet, niche languages are a lot more viable than they used to be, and so there's a small but vibrant community around the surviving Smalltalk implementations.
  - silentbicycle 17y ago
    I'm not sure how directly useful a Smalltalk runtime is, these days, but Smalltalk the language has several really good ideas in it that are just waiting to get brushed off and taken for a ride. Of course, so few programmers seem to care about ideas from more than five years ago that there are tons of such gems hiding in plain sight.
silentbicycle 17y ago
People may vote this up because of fondness for Smalltalk, but there's not really any content in the linked article unless you're in/around London.

16 points by dhenrich 17y ago

Having recently discovered smalltalk from a seasoned developer (with quite a personality to match!), I've come to realize it's an amazing language, and certainly not dead. It's got some very interesting applications in finance, and other high traffic fields, and it's got some really neat tricks that you can carry over to other languages as well. I still don't totally understand the notion that it is dead. In fact, I'd say it might be time to start learning it.

dhenrich 17y ago
The reports of Smalltalk's death are greatly exaggerated...
wglb 17y ago
Would this be a former Tektronix person turned consultant?
- avibryant 17y ago
  That could describe a lot of Smalltalkers, couldn't it?
  - wglb 17y ago
    Well, I think so, but I know only one, and possibly met a second one. You?
cwp 17y ago
I guess "dead" is a relative term. At one time, Smalltalk seemed poised to be the next big thing in enterprise software. The Smalltalk vendors completely blew that opportunity and Java became the OO language of choice. There's still a significant amount of Smalltalk in banking, insurance and other big custom-software installations, but mostly it's a niche language now. I think the "Smalltalk is dead" meme comes from all the ex-Smalltalkers out there. At one point they worked on some enterprise project in Smalltalk, but then switched over to Java when that became fashionable. They remember Smalltalk fondly, but won't use it for anything "real" anymore. With the rise of the internet, niche languages are a lot more viable than they used to be, and so there's a small but vibrant community around the surviving Smalltalk implementations.
- silentbicycle 17y ago
  I'm not sure how directly useful a Smalltalk runtime is, these days, but Smalltalk the language has several really good ideas in it that are just waiting to get brushed off and taken for a ride. Of course, so few programmers seem to care about ideas from more than five years ago that there are tons of such gems hiding in plain sight.

silentbicycle 17y ago

People may vote this up because of fondness for Smalltalk, but there's not really any content in the linked article unless you're in/around London.