2009/6/28 Göran Krampe goran@krampe.se:
Possibly true, but Smalltalk, Squeak, Etoys and even Croquet have been around for quite some time now - and we haven't seen any real explosion yet. Croquet was meant to "explode" but hasn't. So I am not holding my breath for "the day Squeak gets popular" :)
Sometimes being popular means doing normal things. Smalltalk is an unusual programming language (in the sense of mainstream) with an overly eccentric environment in Squeak. Then there are Croquet, Etoys, and so on. It's hardly a break through if it's only "more" eccentric than eccentric. Don't you think?
The look-and-feel is designed for children. It's colourful, joyful, it bleeps and blink. How many professional developers are children? How many children are on this list? Enough with that already! Can we have a normal look-and-feel? A professional look-and-feel. =)
Squeak is stuck in some time warp, where the surrounding world is on stand still. It should however consider that we are living in 2009 and have needs of 2009. We need a different usability, developer tools and we have different goals. For example, Squeak hardly support the requirements of my distributors, which makes it overly challenging for me to consider Squeak as our platform of development.
Squeak doesn't need a killer app. It needs to be spruced up and put back on track. Honey moon is over, it's time to get real.
Regards, Ian.