INteresting perspective, Trygve, and one that appears to have held  
sway in the world of Smalltalk for a long, long time.

"Don't let the paint dry just yet, we're still inventing!" But THIRTY  
YEARS???!!!

A few people have suggested, on this list and off, that I refer my  
friends and colleagues to Dolphin Smalltalk (and, on OSX, to Ambrai  
Smalltalk, which isn't nearly as far along yet). But one of the  
reasons Smalltalk is in contention as a language for these projects  
is its cross-platform nature. I don't want to give that up.

I've been around the fringes of this stuff for more years than I'd  
like to admit. I've written several books on it. I've helped write  
two major systems in it. I'm kindly disposed toward it. AND, I know  
what a huge undertaking it would be to fork off a variant that would  
address the specific issues I think need addressing and an even  
bigger job trying then to maintain compatibility with the forward  
movement of Squeak. Yes, I know I could even build a specialized  
vocabulary/language on top of Squeak and completely alter the UI. I  
know others have done that. But my friends and colleagues and clients  
have problems today that need solutions today. It is just so  
frustrating to me that after so many years, Saueak remains a  
laboratory, an exploration, a learning experience. I am too old to  
start over!

Dan

On Jul 8, 2006, at 1:06 AM, Trygve Reenskaug wrote:

> I see Squeak as a wonderful laboratory where hundreds of  
> professional and amateur researchers can explore, share and test  
> new ideas. My nightmare is that it should become a mainstream  
> professional IDE prematurely. The need for "backward compatibility"  
> could then be overwhelming, effectively hindering innovation. Send  
> the application developers to Dolphin for the time being and permit  
> the next Squeak version be incomatible with the last.