[Q] What is StepTalk?
Jeff Szuhay
jeff at szuhay.org
Sun Jun 8 01:42:46 UTC 2003
> Just out of curiousity, why would you think that StepTalk could become
> a
> .NET alternative?
Thanks for your reply.
Well, my understanding of .NET my be limited and incomplete but what I
think
I know is that somebody _finally_ is promoting
1) a common object and object code format for languages to interoperate
2) this apparently presents system-wide access to services in language
neutral
way
3) that any .NET language becomes something like a scripting language.
In other words, it pushes the whole concept of the Smalltalk image into
the
OS and makes applications, libraries, frameworks all modules of it.
Too bad its the indicted monopolist (but still unpunished), Microsoft,
is the
one doing it, but so be it. .NET will likely always be under the thumb
of MS.
I have been intrigued by Dave Simmons SmallScript and by Objective C
both
as evolutions of Smalltalk -- kind of integrating better with the native
OS rather than trying to replace it (for instance, Squeak does not seem
to
integrate well with any native file system. It reminds me of character
in
Ghost Busters, Slimer, which ate everything in site).
This whole "one big friggin' image" kind of bothers me as it seems more
like
a tumor in an OS than a normal extension or part of the OS. Yes, I am
aware
that at a very, very basic level I am mixing metaphors (why an OS at
all?),
but so much work is duplicated that way. The scripting approach seems to
provide some of both worlds and for that reason appeals to me in a very
gut level.
If the Smalltalk image weren't so voracious, or could neatly
modularized, or
whatever, all so that stand-alone apps could be shipped across multiple
OSes
(the reality we live in), then I'd be ecstatic. Scripting approaches
like
StepTalk, SmallScript which seem to preserve the best of Smalltalk seem
like
a real win to me. Objective-C, while preserving the intend of
Smalltalk, is
another entity.
So there it is.
jw
More information about the Squeak-dev
mailing list
|