Diego Gomez Deck wrote:
Hi guys,
I found the type-system the most unnatural part about StrongTalk. It feels displaced and if you look at methods like "->" in Object you can see that there are some rather nasty complexities associated with it (not to mention readability issues).
Before your message I was so depressed because I felt alone :-P
( Andreas, we are on the same side this time =o) )
To say the true, the only thing I like about StrongTalk is the dynamic compiler. The other unnatural thing is the absence of an image.
Don't feel alone, because I feel the same way.
I came to Smalltalk from Objective-C, where typing is optional. I think optional typing is occasionally useful, but highly overrated, and supporting it introduces a lot of other issues and complexities that I really don't care for.
Come to think of it, though, that's exactly what I think of another often touted feature of the static languages computer camp: multiple inheritance. Multiple inheritance is also occasionally useful, but highly overrated, and supporting it introduces a lot of other issues and complexities that I don't care for.
As to the performance increases that StrongTalk can help provide, there are other options. The performance of the latest VisualWorks release (7.0) is a strong example of what can be done without going to typing.
Nevin