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<br><div><div>On Oct 3, 2006, at 15:32 , Alejandro F. Reimondo wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">There has been a huge investment in promoting smalltalk</font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as a medium to take a new path in systems development (and</font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>understanding), but imo, from the very first papers (like "The</font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>design principles behing Smalltalk") upto today, the</font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>use of smalltalk as an open system has not been promoted</font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(social constrains?).</font></p> </blockquote></div><br><div>Well, it really isn't all that open of a system these days, it is very much a closed world onto itself. This state of affairs is absolutely understandable, historically, because at the time it was created, Smalltalk could be the whole world as there wasn't much else out there to connect to. However, the changes in the outside world since 1980 (or '76 or '72) have been dramatic, and that is probably understating it.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I don't think "extending" Smalltalk(s) will do the trick, I think "refactoring" is the very least that needs to be done.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Marcel</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></body></html>