Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!world!kinsella
From: kinsella@world.std.com (Joe P Kinsella)
Subject: Re: Best commercial Smalltalk
Message-ID: <CxB1MG.EBA@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <36s3r5$8h8@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 13:32:40 GMT
Lines: 53

dlyall@ix.netcom.com (David Lyall) writes:

>I'm looking for a Smalltalk development environment for the Windows. So far
>I understand the possibilities to be ParcPlace, Digitalk, and ENFIN. ENFIN seems
>interesting because of its Synchronicity object modelling tool.

>Can anyone using these systems offer an opinion about them, or direct me to a
>published review if you know about one?

>Thanks in advance,

>David Lyall

David,
	Working for a vendor, I am clearly biased.  But I have worked with
all of the above Smalltalks and can at least provide another perspective to 
this discussion.
	At a high-level, without knowing any of the specifics, I would 
immediately eliminate ParcPlace and VisualAge.  VisualWorks would never be 
my tool of choice for ANY Windows applications.  Yes it has a robust 
Smalltalk implementation and yes it obviously supports Envy--but a 
pre-requisite of any Windows project I have ever worked on is that the 
resulting product looks like a Windows app.  I guess being able to switch 
your apps look and feel on the fly is great for demos--but my experience 
with VW is that is doesn't look and feel like ANY OS it is targeted 
for!  It looks like... well, VisualWorks on UNIX, or VisualWorks on 
Windows, etc...  As for VisualAge, it is too fat and bug-ridden to be 
commercially viable at this point (although I have not seen 2.0 that I 
believe is in beta).
	If Windows is my platform, the two strongest STs are Digitalk and 
ENFIN.  ENFIN is often bashed for its underlying Smalltalk 
implementation.  Many of our most recent customers evaluate us against 
ST-80 and ST/V and find that the overall client/server performance of our 
product is superior to both Parc and Digitalk (if you test performance of 
adding to a collection or accessing a Dictionary, we'll probably lose; 
but in speed of GUI and connectivity, we are FAR superior).
	From there I would perform a detailed investigation and get 
evaluation copies of each product.  The obvious strengths of ENFIN 
include that we have built our Smalltalk environment specifically for 
building real-world client/server applications--and every aspect of the 
product reflects this.  We have the strongest relational database support, 
including the Persistent Mapping Tool, a product that bridges the gap 
between relational databases and Smalltalk.  We also have the Modeling Tool, an 
analysis & design tool that generates Smalltalk and is tightly 
integtrated (bi-directionally) with our Smalltalk environment.  We also 
have outstanding connectivity (including HLAPPI), a team tool, and the 
best customer support and services in the Smalltalk industry.
	Well, I'll stop before you begin to think I'm a salesman and not 
an engineer.  But I hope this helps!

							Joe Kinsella
							Easel Corp

