Promoting Squeak in Academia

J J azreal1977 at hotmail.com
Sun Sep 17 18:46:17 UTC 2006


Another big win for smalltalk is the environment.  Show those C++ guys 
errors like when you forget a double quote.  It isn't going to make an error 
actually show up 300 lines below, it shows up exactly in that method 
(because you do one method at a time).

Show them the fact that the code is compiled when it is entered.  You don't 
have to press 7 buttons to find out if your code is even right, just one (I 
know modern compile environments improve on this some, but no one has it as 
good as a smalltalker).

Show them that you have the ability to change method of a running system and 
the changes take place instantly.  Show them built in version control and 
change sets.  Show them what happens when an exception gets thrown (i.e. you 
see the problem in the debugger, restart it in the debugger and resume, in 
the debugger and it goes on as if it had worked the first time).

I don't know if all that (and more) will sell them, but it sold me.


>From: Eric Winger <eric at thewingers.net>
>Reply-To: The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>To: The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>Subject: Re: Promoting Squeak in Academia
>Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 21:05:34 -0700
>
>
>Le Sep 16, 2006, à 3:26 PM, Matthew Fulmer a écrit :
><snip>
>
>>
>>How much of this is possible to do in squeak? Also, how might I
>>promote squeak to a very diverse set of students? There are
>>electrical engineering students (we use MATLAB and C++),
>>computer science students (they use C++ and Java), music
>>students, and visual arts students (using Max/MSP with Jitter)
>>developing the code that runs in SMALLab.
>>
>I'm neither an expert in marketing, nor in promotion, but I would say that 
>the best thing you could do to interest others in Smalltalk is to pick a 
>problem that they are having in their existing languages. Then try to solve 
>it elegantly in Smalltalk. If you then show them your solution, and its a 
>better solution (easier, faster, less code, whatever) you should at least 
>get their attention.
>
>Eric
>
>





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