User Languages

Ranjan Bagchi ranjan_bagchi at yahoo.com
Wed Mar 15 19:23:40 UTC 2000


I found this bit really interesting:

I've heard a number of times that Smalltalk itself is
distinct from the languge and that a new language (say
with a C-like syntax and "normal" bindings of * over
+) can be written.

I've never seen anything like this -- has it ever been
done?

Anyway, yes:  I find the idea of multiple "user
languages" for interacting with Squeak's objects to
really cool, and could easily help with adoption if
that's something we're interested in.

Ranjan

--- Lawson English <english at primenet.com> wrote:
[...]
> 
> Given this language-learning issue, it seems to me
> that the most important
> factor for gaining widespread acceptance for Squeak
> is to provide a
> HyperTalk-like/VB-like syntax on top of it, plus a
> subset of Morphic's
> capabilities that reminds experienced scripters of
> their home development
> environment.
> 
> I'm a fan of HyperCard/AppleScript's human-like
> syntax, and I suspect that
> most complete neophytes would be also. However,
> there are literally
> MILLIONS of VB hackers/developers out there, so if a
> choice has to be made,
> obviously Squeak Central has to court the Visual
> Basic crowd and leave the
> HyperCard community to fend for itself.
> 
> Thankfully, I don't see why Squeak can't support
> multiple flavors of
> scripting languages on top. They're being translated
> into Squeak underneath
> it all anyway, so it shouldn't be an insurmountable
> problem.
> 


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