Blake wrote:
> In just about any professional desktop development tool today, the 
> process  of displaying DB data in form or grid format is nigh 
> automatic.  I can do  it without a line of code, and I can do it even if 
> I've never seen the  tool in my life.

Any "professional desktop dev tool" or any RAD tool. Ins't the same.

> 
> You say ODBC and ODBCEnh "help with this", so I try to install ODBC and  
> get the expected "no published package" followed by the not surprising:  
> "Error occured during install: Not a GZipped stream". And yet, even if 

Unfortunately this is a common question installing packages that aren't 
up to date, but the most of times the installation is possible after a 
time of experience dealing with with Squeak, packages and so.

> I  could get it to install, I'm positive that generating a simple data 
> entry  form or grid would not be trivial and would most certainly 
> require coding.  Most likely it's not something I could manage in the 
> first week of using  Squeak, much less the first hour.
> 

Squeak isn't a tool to be dominated in 2 weeks, nor in 2 months.

Working full with Smalltalk require a time, at least in my experience. 
The full power of Object Technology (not only object oriented) need a 
time. Smalltalk and RAD are opposites I think. Smalltalk is a tool with 
others goals more than RAD.

> I disagree. OO programming is perfectly capable of modeling an RDBMS. 
> (I  may be hallucinating but I thought I read an essay by Alan Kay 
> embracing  both RDBMS and ODBMS. If so, I hallucinated a really sensible 
> thing.<s>)
> 
> The relational model certainly has its limits, but it also has its 
> uses.  And it's not to Squeak's credit that it makes a chore out of 
> reaching out  to other tools.

My point is that exactly Smalltalk is the best suited option to NOT have 
the need of use relational DBs. If a programmer has payed the costs of 
learn OT (aka Smalltalk), then have no sense (IMHO) get tied to 
relational DBs.

Cheers.
gsa.