[squeak-dev] what is holding back Smalltalk?

Claus Kick claus_kick at web.de
Fri Nov 21 20:17:01 UTC 2008


Brad Fuller wrote:

> Keith,
> 
> That's a great story. We should put that on the website!


You really should:

- STIC
- Squeak

websites.

Though you should really ask if that application is still running.

Claus

> 
> On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 8:21 PM, Keith Hodges <keith_hodges at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>>>In his words, he is "extremely prejudiced" against Smalltalk, even
>>>though he used it during a big project "back in the day."  He calls it
>>>a "quirky, unusual" language that you can do "great and powerful
>>>things" with.  The "Father of real object oriented programming," but
>>>only a "niche" language that small groups of bright people use to go
>>>of and accomplish amazing things with.  But, because the business is
>>>full of "ordinary" people, he thinks you would never be able to find
>>>anyone to work with the code you have written as a business when your
>>>Smalltalk developers leave for other pursuits.
>>
>>I once wrote a simulator for telecoms equipment. The original demo took
>>2 weeks to produce in order to convince my boss.
>>
>>After 3 months work, the simulator was simulating a single piece of
>>equipment 2 months before real equipment was available. This gave the
>>whole team a considerable head start. After a further 6-8 months the
>>simulation was doing 1000 pieces of equipment simultaneously, of 3
>>different varieties, while at the same time simulating up to 20 users
>>prodding the management system. There were 1500 unit tests ensuring that
>>everything was according to spec. The simulation turned out to be key to
>>proof of concept for our clients signing on the dotted line.
>>
>>On the other side of the office, a contractor attempted to write a
>>similar simulator for another piece of equipment, in perl. After a year
>>that was scapped and a team of 4 started in Java. That was also scapped
>>and a top guru tried again in java, his efforts ran on 10 pcs! Finally,
>>last I heard another extremely expensive contractor was starting again
>>in C++.
>>
>>I estimate (being generous) that they must have spent over a half a
>>million pounds on that failed project, and that doesnt include some
>>rather expensive bought in libraries (for which source code was not
>>visible). Little ol- me knocked up my Smalltalk equivalent for perhaps
>>5-10% of the cost. (we did buy an ST/X licence for £2000).
>>
>>When I went on holiday, the only non-programmer in my team, the guy
>>doing automated testing was quite able to fix bugs, run unit tests and
>>keep things going. When I left the company the entire system was handed
>>over to a perl programmer, and last I heard it was still being used by 9
>>people daily. I must ring up and ask if it reached its 10th bithday.
>>
>>So... if your boss is happy to spend 10x as much to get a poorer
>>result... there is not much else can be said.
>>
>>cheers
>>
>>Keith
>>
>>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 




More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list