

Smalltalk: Welcome to the Balkans - abyx
http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/blog/?p=466

======
dmlorenzetti
This surely will sound like a troll, but the main thing that struck me here
was the statement: "Just getting the code out of VisualWorks was a pain." How
can anybody use a development environment that doesn't expose the source code
in plain-text files?

Can somebody who likes VW expound on the advantages it provides?

~~~
rbanffy
Smalltalk has been using images since ever. The image contains your world -
your code, development tools and all your complete environment, preserving its
state between your sessions. When it's time to deliver the application to its
users, you just take out whatever is not the application and its dependencies
and give the image to your client.

That said, I too find it a bit disturbing not to be able to import/export
changes to the base image as text-files and being unable to build a clean
image from source-code only.

~~~
larsr
There are objects in the modern day Squeak image that were created when
Smalltalk-80 was released. In fact, if you explore around Squeak's image, you
can find all sorts of disconnected bits and pieces that nobody uses anymore,
that are just along for the ride because they are in the image. Sort of
Smalltalk pseudogenes. It's organic, very different, and to me as a biologist
who likes to program, quite fascinating.

~~~
rbanffy
I know I shouldn't, but this organic thing makes me worry that one day my
working image could develop some kind of disease ;-)

~~~
mahmud
Use a purifying/tree-shaking tool then. I am sure STs have them.

------
jhancock
It didn't used to be this bad:

1 - I used to have a commercial app framework in smalltalk. You could take a
fresh Digitalk smalltalk system (or even one with lots of mods as long as
there were no namespace conflicts) and "file-in" my app framework code and all
was well. The tools of that day allowed you to "file-out" the code to a plain
text file(s) or save it in object repos with revision history.

2 - Porting between the two major vendors of the day, Digitalk and ParcPlace,
was trivial if you were a solid smalltalk programer.

For the last 10 years, I've on and off tried to use smalltalk again, but the
tool sets are horrid compared to what they used to be. A 1994 Digitalk
smalltalk was a great toolset. Maybe in a few years, Pharo will be on par with
what we had then.

------
vladev
what does this has to do with the Balkans?

~~~
matasar
He's referring to Balkanization:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization>

