Le Mardi 21 Mars 2006 12:44, Lord ZealoN a écrit :
> I downloaded Dolphin, and looks very nice.
>
> What important differences exists between squeak and Dolphin?

Being more a Visualworks user than a pure adept of squeak, i might be more 
neutral.

Dolphin is a vendor Smalltalk,
Squeak is free.
You might check your licence.

Dolphin runs on PC under windows system,
Squeak runs on a wide range of computers.

Syntax is mostly the same, except details like squeak extension {} and Dolphin 
extension ##().

Dolphin class library rely more heavily on microsoft windows OS: it is bound 
to several native DLL, first of all for handling native windows and rendering 
graphics.
Squeak has its own primitives for rendering graphics and Smalltalk code for 
handling windows (move resize collapse etc...). It is mostly OS independant.

To me, external DLL dependency is the main difference in spirit.
Maybe you find Dolphin user interface more familiar for that reason.
Maybe you can find other advantages in being able to use microsoft stuff 
(hardcopy etc...). This is not in the spirit of Squeak, though possible to 
do. Squeak has to be free, and then OS-vendor neutral.
Probably for the same reason, Dolphin is smaller than Squeak, and maybe easier 
to learn. But also more limited.
Dolphin reminds me the ancient Smalltalk/V from Digitalk, i learned Smalltalk 
with.

But squeak has a larger user community to which you can easily contribute, and 
definitely is a much more creative place.

Sure the squeakers can give you a long list of interesting projects you can 
already benefit by.

In short, Dolphin is one of today's good windows-OS-bound Smalltalk 
implementation. You can benefit from this, but then place yourself in slavery 
of Microsof will.
Squeak is already quite good today, and in my opinion the best bet on future.

It depends what you intend to do with Smalltalk. But it is mostly a political 
choice. If you like free code and feel yourself a member of this community, 
definitely choose Squeak. But do have a deeper look in Dolphin, it's always 
interesting.

Afterall, i was not that neutral. Maybe you wait more technical discussion ?

Nicolas