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From: vlad@world2u.com (Vlastimil Adamovsky)
Subject: Re: The Smalltalk vs. Java debate
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Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 18:17:54 GMT
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jur@topdog.cs.umbc.edu (Jacqueline U. Robertson) wrote:

>Now mind you, I am biased (I do work for ParcPlace, after all) - but I've
>seen all this before.  three years ago the same thing happened - only
>it was C++, not Java - in fact, I saw pretty much the same posts (only
>fewer, as this group had less readership then).  Take Java and do a 
>global replace with C++, and you could have almost any article that
>was posted back then.  Guess what ?  The crest came, it went, something else
>arose in it's place (Java), and Smalltalk continued to grow.  I expect
>the same thing to happen now.

>Panic is common, and I suppose it generates excitement, but it's rarely
>based on reality in this industry.

I think, now the situation is quite different. The software industry became more
sofisticated. Smalltalk has stagnated thru the years and only minor improvements
have been done. 
Now, the sitiation is (my personal opinion, please, don't stone me) such, that
solid and stable projecys are being done in C++ and RAD are being done in Visual
Basic. 
After the success of ActiveX the situation is more than clear. 
Smalltalk will become an advanced "scripting language" since there is no need to
do GUI in Smalltalk, and there is no need to do reusable objects in Smalltalk. 

I would not panic,  we should simple realize what is happening around us and
accordingly develop appropriate Smalltalk development environment. 
I think QKS and ObjectConnect could go in that direction. 

 
 Vlastimil Adamovsky
 ** C++ and Smalltalk consultant **
 * http://www.stepweb.com *

