On Aug 31, 2006, at 5:52 AM, Eric Winger wrote:

>
> On Aug 31, 2006, at 2:35 AM, Rich Warren wrote:
>
>> Also, I  hate being isolated from the rest of my desktop. I'm a  
>> mac user. I like my mac. I like my mac apps. I wish Smalltalk  
>> could be part of that environment. Visual Works gets a few points  
>> here. At least it looks like a native interface (Though, the UI  
>> doesn't behave in a consistently native manner--which can actually  
>> be more annoying sometimes. And it doesn't run on intel macs yet.).
>
> FScript (mentioned already) & Ambrai Smalltalk http:// 
> www.ambrai.com/ are two nice smalltalk frameworks for interacting &  
> constructing apps using the cocoa framework. Fscript is the  
> scripting variant & Ambrai is closer to a full-featured smalltalk.
>
> Eric
>
>

I use FScript--but mostly I use it as a developer's tool. I haven't  
really figured out how to use it to write code yet (other than  
executing simple things from the workspace). Still, it's great for  
poking around, especially when trying to examine existing apps.

Ambrai looks nice. Of course, it's a beta trial release, and I didn't  
see anything on the site about how much the actual release would cost  
(or if there would be a personal version for open source development).

However, both of these are Mac-only. While I use a mac, often I have  
to write code that can be executed on PCs. That leaves me with  
VisualWorks and Squeak. I like the fact that Squeak is open source.

The biggest UI problem I have is the fact that Squeak's private  
window really mucks with my regular work flow. Typically I use Expose  
a lot--it lets me move effortlessly from window to window (I know, a  
lot of people don't like Expose--my wife can't stand it. But it  
really works for me). I can move between apps very quickly. I can  
also move between all the windows of a single application.

There would be a very big efficiency gain if I could manage my Squeak  
windows the same way I manage my other Mac windows.

I think this can be generalized to all UI interactions. The more the  
UI for Squeak resembles the underlying UI of the host OS, the more  
efficient you can be. You can have a UI that is enhanced above and  
beyond the host OS--as long as it follows the same behaviors as the  
underlying OS, users can leverage their existing knowledge and skills  
while working in Squeak.

-Rich-