Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: Kevin Clark <kevin@objsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Smalltalk is dead (was: The Smalltalk vs. Java debate)
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Mike Anderson wrote:
> 
> Alan Knight wrote:
> 
> > The problem is that Java namespaces are purely class-based. They have no
> > concept corresponding to Envy's "class extension". There's no way to add
> > methods to an existing class. This forces all kinds of very ugly workarounds.
> > I hope that Smalltalk's with namespaces will be out very soon, but I also hope
> > that these are not just class namespaces, but can also incorporate methods.
> 

The above statement is not exactly true in Java. JDK 1.1 supports the
ability to do the following

package myPackage;
class Object extends java.lang.Object {
	// what ever methods you want
}

As strange as this may seem, a non-image system solves the namespace
problem with packages. Furthermore, you may refer to a class with the
classpath directly in Java code. Java has solved the namespace problem.
Smalltalk has not.

The sematics of the language is not the issue. Smalltalk development
environments are superior in their current state. The debuggers bury
Java.

Be forewarned, Sun has acquired Animorphic. They may bring true dynamic
compilation within a year to Java. Then it sould be interesting....


> The Smalltalk namespace problem is more of a problem for me than Java's
> inability to add methods to existing classes.  When I first started
> programming in Java the inability to add methods to existing classes was
> quite troubling, but I got used to it and don't think much about it
> anymore.
> 
> > You can't make a bulletproof module in Java, not without doing lots of
> > exception handling, which is exactly what you'd need to do in Smalltalk.
> 
> Yes, I can make a bulletproof module in Java, and without doing lots of
> exception handling.  As long as I don't present an interface that takes
> containers (Hashtables, Vectors, etc) whose contents need to be cast to
> be used, it's not that difficult.
> 
> ....Mike

-- 
Kevin Clark
Objectsoft, Inc
350 West Erie, 2nd floor
Chicago, IL 60611
312-266-7887 x 105
http://www.objsoft.com


