Are we to conclude that Sun has finally deprecated their _entire_ 
class library? :)   Sorry - couldn't resist.  

My hunch is that Sun will next learn what Smalltakers learned a 
long time ago: graphical programming tools have their limits.  
Remember the "green haze"?  I never experienced it first hand, but 
I've heard horror stories.

I hope that Smalltalkers in general, and Squeakers in particular, 
will see Sun's change in direction as justification to keep doing the 
things that have gotten us this far.  For Squeak, I'd like to see 
some more support, and modules might be the enabler, for 
mundane forms (typists like to tab between controls - sorry), modal 
dialog boxes (to keep inexperienced or distracted users out of 
trouble) and relational databases (to make customers happy, and 
because sometimes they really are the best solution for storage).  

A common complaint is that "Squeak looks funny".  Actually, the 
look has improved a lot, and I don't think users care all that much 
anyway.  However, Squeak does "feel funny", and users would care 
about that.

Until the industry as a whole loosens its grip on static typing (and I 
don't think it will), we can probably expect an endless chain of "ok, 
let's rebuild everything THIS way now" solutions that won't last.  
Squeak's position as an open and portable Smalltalk puts it in a 
very unique position.  Provide a stable platform for doing grunt 
work, and anything else that it does is gravy - just my $0.02.

Bill


Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Department of Anesthesiology
PO Box 100254
Gainesville, FL 32610-0254

Email: bills at anest4.anest.ufl.edu
Tel: (352) 846-1285
FAX: (352) 392-7029