Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: Carl Turcotte <cturcot@ucs.att.com>
Subject: Re: Is Smalltalk a deadend ?
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Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 22:06:08 GMT
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Vlastimil Adamovsky (vlad) wrote:
> 
> Smalltalk is not a deadend. But what made me thinking is that already
> several companies asked me to rewrite their stuff written in Smalltalk
> to the C++.

I usually see the other way around !!!  but ...???

 
> That's what I consider a danger. The more rapidly you can develop an
> application, the more rapidly you make errors.
> If you use for example C++, then it can be quit difficult to develop
> something from scratch.
> It forces you to use OO design methods along with right tools and
> then, before implementing the design, you shop around and buy
> well-tested objects. If you use this approach, it should not take more
> time to develop a well performing and reliable application.

I think OO development is incremental, you can refine your design and your code as you go along...
Don't try to reach perfection on the first pass, prototype, go back ... It should not be a static 
process but a dynamic one.

The one thing I am pretty sure is that C++ does not , but really doesn't force you to follow the OO 
paradigm.  From what I seen, they produced more C programs compiled with C++ than anything 
else...and then call it an OO application because they defined a few classes that they handle more 
like data structures, but maybe I am making a generalization.  It is much easier for C++ coders to 
create run time errors. (example: memory/garbage collection).


> The question is not what language to use, but how to use it and how to
> improve our software industry that is in a deepest crisis.

I think C++, Smalltalk, Java, Forte, etc... are all very good OO products, they probably just need 
to be applied where they perform the best... I suspect the strongest OO applications to be using 
more than one at a time !

The crisis, Vlastimil, nah!  come see us in Florida !!

Take care,

Carl

ps. Again, please forgive my bad grammar, I am french and I can't help it !
