[squeak-dev] Re: Windows service: Win2k to the rescue - slightly

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Thu Oct 16 04:14:57 UTC 2008


Bill Schwab wrote:
> My primary cash cow feeds data into all of the above, and it is a
> combination of a hands-off data gathering system and fairly intense user
> interface.  Here, Linux would help me some (ok, a lot) with maintenance,
> but it forces me to replace some nice printing, serialization, and
> low-level user interface features.  While I think dumping Windows is the
> correct decision, these machines will be the last to switch, in part
> because device drivers are being a pain (pen tablets), and I really
> should just rewrite the code to make the move. 

To be blunt, if you got a cash cow, it would be irresponsible to switch 
away from it just because of general principles (principles are nice but 
they don't pay the bills). So if all your stuff is Windows, use Windows 
and save those bucks for improvements of the product instead.

> If that sticks, then I
> can later convert the legacy data, and put Tux's likeness on any
> adhesive-friendly surface I can find.  While I work on other parts of
> the system, I will be watching for signs that I need to rethink the use
> of Squeak/Pharo over other Smalltalks.  Don't get me wrong, I hope it
> can stand up to the beating, and plan to use it if it indeed can.

The biggest issues in any Squeak deployment are usually either the UI 
(if you're doing client development) or proper scaling procedures if you 
do server-side stuff (which does include considerations for the database 
backend scaling). Outside of these considerations there is little reason 
not to use Squeak. Since you are doing server-side stuff you should 
probably inquire on the Seaside list for appropriate scaling procedures 
but I think the conventional wisdom is still to make sure Apache serves 
the static content and Squeak is only serving the dynamic content and 
you should be good. If you have limited amounts of domain data to deal 
with a simple relational database backend works wonders (our servers use 
ODBC to a MySQL database and it works great) and if you have larger 
amounts of domain data I would consider Gemstone due to its nice 64bit 
architecture, transactional features and (last but not least) excellent 
support.

Cheers,
   - Andreas



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