Some of the faculty panned it because they claimed the I/O features were either poor or nonexistent.
That is a silly argument. Squeak or Pharo don't have really high-performance I/O, but that can hardly be an argument for an introduction to OOP course.
Both provide more than enough features, and better ones than java, to do the kind of i/o typically done in such a course.
Some better arguments against are: - the user interface is not really consistent, and in the case of Pharo not yet stable; - deep down there are monsters, classes that are way too large and not well refactored. - creating native user interfaces is difficult.
I'm not sure the first argument is really important, as every IDE is going to provide conceptual difficulties for a beginner anyway.
One could anticipate on the second argument, use it for an assignment (describe three responsibilities of the Morph class), and talk a bit on refactoring.
And user interfaces could be web-based in Seaside.
Stephan Eggermont
beginners@lists.squeakfoundation.org