Hi everybody!

I have been working with VW/GemStone/VA earlier but the last year
mainly in "that other popular OO language you all know...". The Squeak
list is a way for me to hang on to the Smalltalk world.

Squeak is SOO very nice, my congratulations to all involved! ...but
still I would like to bring up a couple of things that would make
Squeak truly usable for me personally. I have no idea if these things
are just plain silly or if someone else perhaps share my thoughts:

1. Is there a way (in that case, excuse my ignorance) or would it not
be great if there was a way to use Squeak as a script language for
scripting purposes like Python & Perl are used today?

If I could develop a fairly complicated script in the Squeak
environment and then deploy it easily with for example the
"#!/bin/..."-feature in UNIX systems as a script with only "my" source
in one easily read and editable file, I would truly considering using
Squeak for all those things due to Smalltalks speed of development!
Now I am instead leaning towards Python - and even though Python is
quite appealing - it would feel much better to be able to do it in
Smalltalk!

2. Would it not be interesting to be able to develop fullblown
commercial GUI apps with Squeak?

This would certainly make Squeak my personal choice for "hobby
projects", but as it looks now, Squeaks UI is just not right for that.
Do not get me wrong here, I think Morphic looks truly cool, and I
certainly would like to stay within the Smalltalk paradigm as much as
possible. I have heard about Cheese, but I have not seen it. I have
recently discovered wxWindows
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/) and if it could be
done - a "wrap-up" of wxWindows from within Squeak - looks like it
would open up a lot of deployment possibilites. Do you think it would
be doable/useful? As above, I would like to work within Squeak and
then, when it comes to deployment, choose to deploy using a wxWindows
library for a specifik platform.

3. Number 2 would of course include an ability to call external C/C++
librarys in a simple way. This would in itself open up a lot of other
interesting possibilites. This is also a strength of Python, by the way.

Ok, I think these two things would make a lot of people look twice at
Squeak. It sure would make me  consider using Squeak for a lot of
things...

Just my two cents, G–ran

PS. If I am misinformed about a lot of things in the above text, it
would not be the first time in my life! :-) DS 

===
G–ran Hultgren   | goran.hultgren at inspire.se | OO Consulting
Inspire          | Hem: +46 8 54022950       | http://www.inspire.se
Karlav”gen 18    | Mobil: +46 708 813936     | icq#:6136722
114 31 Stockholm | "Vi g–r allt m–jligt"







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