Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: nara@netcom.com (Nara)
Subject: Re: Smalltalk - binary portability
Message-ID: <naraDz4M8A.o8@netcom.com>
Summary: Smalltalk - binary portability
References: <9610071749.AA11929@mail.entra.se> <DyzJB2.5oK@news2.new-york.net>
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 19:31:22 GMT
Lines: 43
Sender: nara@netcom15.netcom.com

In article <DyzJB2.5oK@news2.new-york.net>, Vlastimil Adamovsky 
  <vlad@world2u.com> wrote:

[some stuff deleted for brevity]

>Anyway, the new direction in Smalltalk (if it wants to survive) will be a
>Smalltalk tightly working with the host OS. Forget platform binary portability.
>It is a joke. Take a look at Smalltalk MT, Smalltalk/X etc. 
>So the DOOMSDAY will not come if we will not expect impossible from Smalltalk. 

[rest deleted for brevity]

I use Smalltalk (VisualWorks) for its (binary) portability, among other
reasons.  
My company develops a product(s) for Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, IRIX, NT, 
WIN95, ...  The primary product is a C++ product, and I watch the 
C++ software "porting" engineers as they go about doing their best to move 
their Solaris stuff to the HP-UX... with some degree of success.  Then they 
start on the next platform (AIX...), and then the next... and then .... 
Aaarrggghh!!!

With all the differences in the platforms, C/C++ compilers, and bugs in the
platforms you have to work around, I'd like to give PP-D a big round of
applause for letting me leverage the most out of VisualWorks so that I
can stay focused on building my application.

I just develop the Smalltalk product on Solaris, and guess what.. it works
on HP-UX too, and the others likewise... In fact, I was asked to assist
the "porting" engineers in their C++ efforts since I was done "early" <g>.
Nothing more degrading for a Smalltalk developer than to have to
code in C/C++ (I'm not trying to start a flame war here...) in my
"spare" time... If you like porting C++ programs across platforms, send
me your resume'... I think my company may be interested in you. <g>

Source portability (100%) between platforms (as you mentioned) is a viable
option too, that I look forward to, if binary portability poses too
much of an overhead for PP-D.

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[nara@netcom.com] 
