I think this might be the first language flamewar on the Squeak mailing
list.


> 	1) Sane library/import systems. Sane namespaces.
	
Yes, that would be nice for Squeak.  The mechanisms are actually in
place, by the way, but the tools don't use it.

	
> 	2) The ability to code extensions in C, and hook them into Python, and have 
> them appear as other Pythonic Object.

You can do this in Squeak perfectly fine.



> When PyPy comes out, with it's dynamic 
> recomplier, and written in itself, it will have what Squeak has been 
> promising for 5 years. Squeak is written in itself, yes, but the new Jitter 
> has gone through 4-5 aborted stalled attempts.

A slight exaggeration here, because some of those versions worked fairly
well.  But yes, and you aren't the only one frustrated.  The
announcements of Jitter do tend to chill efforts by anyone else who
might work in the area.


> 	3) It has no wonderous GUI. But I can choose to use it, or loose it. IDLE is 
> very nice

Squeak idles fine, for most people, and it works fine without a GUI. 
For example, the swikis run without a GUI most of the time.


> 	4) Python supports a wide variety of 3rd party tools and libraries. 
> TwistedMatrix alone is a networking library that Squeak, or any language 
> would kill to have. Very well written, very, excedingly easy to use.


Squeak supports a good many libraries, but I'd guess not as many as
Python.  Squeak also has a Foreign Function Interface, so it
additionally handles way more libraries than those that have had
explicit plugins written.  But anyway, at some point you are talking
about a popularity contest.  Important, yes, sometimes, depending on
your goals.  But not very helpful to discuss.


> Python's sound support WORKS, unlike Squeak on Linux which to break in
> different ways at different times.

I was unaware anyone was having trouble with sound on Linux.  FWIW, I
have not seen a problem at all for years, either with the OSS interface
or with the NAS interface.



> and there is no reason why one couldn't write a ST like 
> environment on top of python. With Python's syntax, it'd be very easy to make 
> it support both 'self' and 'smalltalk' behaviors. The object model is 
> infinitely flexible. 

Indeed, it is possible.  You need to write lots of browsers, debuggers,
inspectors, code management tools, gui paraphenalia, etc. etc. etc. 
It's a lot of stuff if you enumerate it all, but there are no inherent
problems.


-Lex