Re:I can read C++ and Java but I can’t read Smalltalk (2000)...
by igouy on Saturday December 18, 2021 @11:36PM
(#29611365)
> * Bad story on concurrency and multiprocessing.
Mostly non-premptive lightweight concurrency (with the multiprocessor exception Actra)
> * Wasn't really all that portable.
iirc Just copying files from MacOS to MSWin to Unices was enough to port software.
> * Tightly bound with development environment.
That was considered to be a feature not a bug.
> Resource hungry mostly due to being tightly bound to the ide, and many implementations required the IDE to ship with the product.
The IDE could be stripped-out.
> * Expensive
Everything is expensive when the alternative is free-as-in-beer.
> Ultimately, smalltalk really fell out of favor because:
"The Rise and Fall of Commercial Smalltalk (2020)"
Smalltalk has always went in the amazing language to look for inspiration from. Commercial implementations were pretty pricey (I think in the thousands). Ultimately, smalltalk really fell out of favor because:
* Bad story on concurrency and multiprocessing.
* Wasn't really all that portable.
* Tightly bound with development environment.
* Resource hungry mostly due to being tightly bound to the ide, and many implementations required the IDE to ship with the product.
* Expensive
I learned a lot about object oriented development from playing with smalltalk, and was able to employ a lot of what I learned using Java, Python, C#, Objective C, and C++. To this day, you really see a lot of code editing and management concepts that started in smalltalk in your favorite IDE.