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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>Hi Smalltalkers,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>This is my first post on your list. My
name is Randy Manning and I am from Waco Texas. I've been programming
since 1980 and have been Smalltalking since ~1994. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>My first "useful" Smalltalk
application was written in Visual Smalltalk V3.11 (by: ParkPlace Digitalk -
Now ObjectShare). This program is an industrial simulator constructor.
It has a toolbox containing common components found in an industrial factory -
conveyors, motors, pumps, tanks, pipes, hoppers, etc. These component objects
are dragged from the toolbox and dropped onto a workspace. One then
drags connections from one component to another and assigns the appropriate
connections of output to input via popup menu selections. I wrote this simulator
constructor because I had written a specific-solution simulator in Visual
Basic. This Visual Basic program was so easy to use and understand that my
coworkers soon came to me wanting many other simulations of processes that occur
in the factory where I work. It had taken me two months to write (and
rewrite...) the Visual Basic simulation. I did not have enough time to write
every simulation they wanted in Visual Basic so, I decided to create the
simulator constructor in Smalltalk (Oh yess - I've seen the light) forget VB for
something as powerful and flexible as Smalltalk! It took me two months to write
the simulator constructor. I decided to reconstruct the simulation that I had
created with my VB program as a first test of the time saving offered by my
new Smalltalk creation. It took only three days to recreate my original VB
simulator, and my Smalltalk simulator was far superior. I now have a tool with
which I can create a new simulation within a day or so, instead of the months
that would be required to accomplish the same with VB. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>Now I understand that Visual Smalltalk
has been discontinued. It has been replaced by Visual Works. The two are
not compatible by any means. Visual Works is a complete Smalltalk rewrite - from
ground up. There isn't even a hope of being able to use any of my simulator code
within Visual Works. Visual Works has a totally different
hierarchy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>I love the Smalltalk paradigm. It is
so fast and powerful. But unfortunately no one has set a useable standard of the
language for developers. Squeak looks like the best place to start - seriously!
I'm not saying that we have to rewrite Squeak. I only suggest that serious
developers consider adding to the existing Squeak hierarchy an extension of
classes devoted to the needs of end-user software developers. Most needed would
be a Smalltalk to C translator for the end-user development extension classes,
which would be capable of handling several of the most common hardware
platforms. This translator would need to be high-level buffered from specific
hardware/OS requirements much as Smalltalk uses a few primitives to buffer the
hardware/OS specifics from the programmer. The Developer badly needs the
equivalent of VB's GUI designer. This tool was available in Visual Smalltalk as
the "Workbench". Squeak, as far as I know, offers no equivalent GUI builder
system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>I am willing to work with
others to develop this most useful extension to Squeak. Squeak has been
more difficult for me to learn and use than Visual Smalltalk was, so please feel
free to let me know how ignorant I am about any of the issues that I have
thus far discussed. I think most of us here are very serious programmers -
Smalltalk just seems to naturally attract those types. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=4>~ Randy</FONT></DIV>
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