Martin Wirblat wrote:
> Jonathan Kelly wrote:
> ...
> 
>> It's this very impression I had of sqeak that's holding me back from 
>> saying, "Yeah, I want to use smalltalk". It seems to me that part of 
>> the problem is that an image doesn't contain code, it's infected by 
>> it. I will admit I probably haven't got into the headspace yet, if 
>> there is a headspace, and there's obviously a lot I don't know, but 
>> I'm finding less and less reason to think using smalltalk for my next 
>> project (and it's a large project) is a good idea, if obviously very 
>> intelligent people have difficulty managing code and staying current. 
>> Maybe "staying current" is just another not so important mind set, but 
>> it's the one I have (and almost certainly one the client has) ... :)
>>
> 
> Staying current or managing code is not a technical problem. Our problem 
> is about people, and obviously these are not so very intelligent as you 
> might think. If you compare Smalltalk with other languages, the closest 
> thing you could do with Squeak to mimic what other languages can only 
> do, is:
> 
> - Put a clean image and your application broken up in package files 
> (Monticello) onto your client's site
> - Have a load script, that loads these packages into a copy of the clean 
> image, which then becomes "the application"
> - Update (replace) from time to time packages of your application and 
> rebuild a new application image
> 
> But that is only a clumsy way of what could be done by updating directly 
> your original application image with the streamer and/or Monticello 
> packages. If you do it this way, data in this image is preserved, a 
> property other languages of course don't have, because they don't have 
> an image :)

Yes, I'll admit to not really getting the advantages of the image ... 
yet, and haven't even looked other tools like MC. It's hard not having a 
serious chunk of time to devote to getting over "the hump" ... there so 
much to take on all at once ... and it's really fustrating trying to get 
a handle on everything by just snatching an hour here and there when I 
can. One day at a time ...

> 
> Regards,
> Martin
> 
>