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From: moresys@world.std.com (More Systems Employee)
Subject: Re: Java vs. Smalltalk vs. C++ vs. OO COBOL
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In article <31D1B5B0.4115@alumni.caltech.edu>, mklein@alumni.caltech.edu says...
>
>More Systems Employee wrote:
>> It's not because I wouldn't love to have it. It's because
>> I CAN'T AFFORD IT. Hell, my COMPANY can't afford it. And as
>> for writing applets, not even Bill Gates couldn't afford to
>> buy a VisualWorks runtime license for every web browser
>> on the internet.
>
>VisualWorks just recently droped their run-time license fee.
>Only time will tell if the Smalltalk community can get it together
>enough to make Smalltalk a viable alternative to Java.
>I sure hope so.

Hm, that is good news, but what about the price of the
development environment? a free runtime is useless if I can't 
afford to make software to run in it. VisualWorks wouldn't
have to be free, but it should be a lot cheaper, and there 
should be a half-decent free develoment environment that is 
upwards-compatable to VisualWorks if they expect to compete
with Java.

Ideally, smalltalkers should write a smalltalk compiler for
the Java VM, co-operating with sun to enhance the VM if
neccissary. Java could gain a lot from the experience of
the Smalltalk development community, but Smalltalk programmers
could also probably learn a thing or two from Java. Given
a choice between the two, I would love to have both!

In the future, there will always be many languages. Java
the language will never take over the whole world, it just
isn't suited for every possible application. However,
I think the Java VM (or whatever grows out of it) WILL
take over the world. It is the only good way to seperate
software from the ever-changing hardware platforms, and
will save both programmers from hardware dependance and
hardware engineers from backwards compatability.

-Eugene

>-- mike
>
>mklein@alumni.caltech.edu

