Hi,

Bravo Benoit!

I concur.

Every Smalltalk or Smalltalk variant is Smalltalk! Let's make them all the best they can be.

I currently use: Susie Smalltalk, Smalltalk MT,  Dolphin, Squeak, Pharo, VisualWorks, VisualAge, Gemstone, GNU Smalltalk, Smalltalk/X.  I have products in Digitalk V286 for PC and Mac, VisualSmalltalk Enterprise. I'm working on my own variant of Smalltalk, ZokuTalk. I like other smaltalk's too, heck, there is a list here: http://www.Smalltalk.org/versions that's almost complete (new smalltalk's keep appearing).

Unlike Java or the Microsoft communities, Smalltalk is very much like the Unix, Linux, *BSD communities, it's diverse.

If you can't get along with others fine, no one will force you... but please let those of us who can get along with each other regardless of which Smalltalk we use get on with making them better. Thanks.

One aspect of human nature is to form groups with "rules" about who is in the group and who isn't. Benoit is right that we are all using Smalltalk and that is the larger context, the larger group to keep in mind even if you only use one Smalltalk.

You can also think of it another way, the larger group may be able to bring more resources to bear on problems to solve them quicker. Much like farming communities that assist each other to build barns. This year Billy Bob needs a new barn. Next year it's Mary Sue.

“Three helping one another will do as much as six working singly." - Spanish proverb. By extension, all Smalltalkers working to improve Smalltalk will accomplish more than any of us can in fragmented groups.

All the best,

Peter William Lount
Editor Smalltalk.org



Benoit St-Jean wrote:
Chers amis, désolé pour l'anglais mais comme je voulais que tous les principaux intéressés comprennent mon point de vue, j'ai choisi l'anglais!

Okay guys, let's put things in perspective here...

Pharo isn't at war with Squeak and vice-versa...  Just like any kid, it just wants to "live it's own life" and somehow, somewhat, slowly progress and become a little bit different from its parents, here namely Squeak.

If find it weird that 2 Smalltalk implementations/communities, so close to each other like Squeak and Pharo, go to great lengths at flaming each other...  Don't you find it weird that such discussions don't happen between VisualWorks and Dolphin, between VisualAge and GNU Smalltalk, etc ?

We're from the same family.  Okay, we're all a bit different different but, deep inside, we're so the same.

I'm a happy Smalltalker who's daily job involves VisualWorks, Dolphin and VisualAge.  In my spare time, I'm happy "squeaking" and "pharoing".  Can't we just respect each other's goals/ambitions/dreams and try to find some communality and try to stay "not too far from each other and benefit from each other" instead of starting a "cold war" that will only leave us isolated, both in our own camps ?  I'm puzzled!  What do I do if I like both?  Choose my camp or abandon them both ?
 
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Benoit St-Jean
Yahoo! Messenger: bstjean
Blog: lamneth.wordpress.com
A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero.
(Albert Einstein)