Most companies using VSE have developed & enhanced their frameworks over the
time since VSE was declared moribund.

To move such an application which is in most cases a Windows GUI based
application requiring deep OS-Integration to a different Smalltalk dialect
is technically very difficult.

 

The alternative to get a VSE-application updated would be to obtain a
license for our LSW Virtual-Machine. We do not license our LSW
Vision-Smalltalk. LSWVST is running on our latest VM but the efforts
migrating a complex Windows-Smalltalk application to an entirely different
Smalltalk framework is not feasible & we want to concentrate as a small
company on developing & marinating our VM.

 

Running a VSE application on our VM requires very few changes.

To be legally save you need be a VSE licensee.

 

I don't think that it makes sense for Cincom to try to stop VSE-customers to
use a different VM for existing VSE-applications.

Actually our VM helps Cincom to sell VSE-licenses. Cincom is a huge company
& while some managers can try to tell their customers some things - I see
that - for me relevant people at Cincom do the right thing mentioning our
product in public & as a side effect promoting it.

 

While I personally disliked the idea to open-source VSE or any other
commercial Smalltalk, I also see the drive of companies demanding it.

Companies have obtained the VSE-VM source in the past & where only able to
do marginal changes as to correct small bugs & extending the FFI.

I doubt that VM-developers (except one I know) in those companies are able
to develop it further (e.g. produce a 64-bit version or move to a different
platform or processor architecture).

 

Also patching & reverse-engineering VSE is the poor-companies way & is IMO
also irrelevant for Cincom because they could not expect any business from
those people.

People who are posting VM-bugs (hoping that VSE hackers provide free
patches) and at the same time complaining ijn public that Cincom do not
provide them with a corrected VM are probably not paying Cincom for it.

 

There are free alternatives if Windows GUI integration isn't required - for
Squeak & its friends exists now a more powerful faster VM - the COG-VM.

And IMO it is a sane state for the Smalltalk-community in the whole that
commercial & free alternatives exist.

 

Alejandro F. Reimondo - a well known Smalltalk-specialist (especially in the
VSE area) has joined us a few years ago - & is helping companies to prepare
their products to run on our VM.

The VSE-VM has not being developed since a decade - we have developed our VM
since more than a decade and are actively developing it not only to run
Smalltalk dialects.

So companies which want to obtain a license for using our VM are invited to
contact us. 

 

Frank Lesser, Lesser-Software

 

 

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