Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!oitnews.harvard.edu!purdue!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!eff!news.duke.edu!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hplextra!hplb!gw
From: gw@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Gunther Walther)
Subject: Re: Why use Smalltalk as the primary development language ...
Sender: news@hplb.hpl.hp.com (Usenet News Administrator)
Message-ID: <DJt00B.Muy@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 22:33:47 GMT
References: <48t80p$onu@news1.delphi.com> <48tndt$l33@sanews.uswc.uswest.com> <4akkut$ao5@news2.ios.com> <30d19ce2.327022543@fountain.mindlink.net> <4aus88$jpg@news2.ios.com>
Nntp-Posting-Host: gwalther.hpl.hp.com
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, England
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0.7]
Lines: 52

vlad (vlad@gramercy.ios.com) wrote:
: jgale@ican.mlnet.com (John Gale) wrote:

: >vlad@gramercy.ios.com (vlad) wrote:

: >} >If you have no need for a GUI, and you're coming from C-land, don't waste
: >} >your time with Smalltalk, the learning curve is too steep, IMHO.
: >} 

[ deleted, continued... ]

: GUI development has NOTHING TO DO with an implementation language. 
: It is not a task of GUI developer to deal with the implementation
: language. It is task of the GUI designer tool. If the tool is using
: Smalltalk as an implementation language, than it is OK.

To GUI or not tool GUI that is the question. Whether it is nobler
in the mind to suffer the slings and errors of incapable tools,
or by opposing end them.

Simply speaking there are standard GUIs, that can be done using tools,
then there are GUIs where you pushing the envelope of the tool, and
work more against it, than with its framework. Finally there
are GUIs, that are way beyond the capability of current tools.

(It might be an interesting discussion what is beyond current tools,
 and we would like to have.). It might be possible to get GUI tools
 to display data in a standard graphical form, but as soon as you
 throw in requirements like real-time and being able to click on it,
 it gets pretty thin. Throw in some application specific requirements
 about coloring and sorting, then please tell me who is supplying such
 software - in any language.


: I agree. It was a mistake from me to say that the Smalltalk is hard to
: learn. It is quit easy and intuitive. For empty brains. But for those
: people "brain-damaged" by the C++ it can be dificult to learn.

A dificult subject indeed.

A learning curve is a monotonous increasing function. It has different
slopes along the time line. Also the level at which it ends is
different. The function will look different for people from
different backgrounds and with different abilities.

: In Smalltalk EVERYTHING is an object. It is a complete nonsence.

Did you mean "nonsence"? This sounds a bit like nonsense.

just my 0.02 euro,

gunther
