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Domain: exept.de

Stories and comments across the archive that link to exept.de.

Comments · 14

  1. Re:Forget Closures by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1 · on 'Here Be Dragons': The Seven Most Vexing Problems In Programming (infoworld.com)

    Yes, but which OO? I'd vote for CLOS, or some extension of it.

    Also, memorably: Part 1, how to get rid of closures, and Part 2 how to get rid of objects.

  2. Re:Forget Closures by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1 · on 'Here Be Dragons': The Seven Most Vexing Problems In Programming (infoworld.com)

    Yes, but which OO? I'd vote for CLOS, or some extension of it.

    Also, memorably: Part 1, how to get rid of closures, and Part 2 how to get rid of objects.

  3. Show your son Smalltalk by chris_sawtell · · Score: 1 · on How To Encourage a Young Teen To Learn Programming?
    Show him Smalltalk and let him get on with it.
    It's probably the most productive language and programming paradigm ever created.
    It'll probably blow your mind apart, but youngsters take to it like ducks to water.
    The slogan is: Smalltalk makes hard things possible, and the impossible, possible.

    If he gets a reasonable grasp of the principles of these, I assure you he can look forward to a very profitable and rewarding life.

  4. What to do? read, Read, READ! by chris_sawtell · · Score: 3, Informative · on Tech Jobs For a Student?
    Go the college route only IF you can afford it, and IF the college has a well developed and staffed CS/IT department. If it hasn't then you are just throwing away your money, which would be much better spent on a decent library of text-books. Assuming you decide to teach yourself then you'll need to learn a language or three. I'd suggest you learn what the OO paradigm is all about. These languages are pretty good implementations of it:- Get your head around that lot, toss in a sprinkling of accountancy, and you will be a very valuable item, but don't forget to have a bit of fun on the side.
  5. Re:Squeak by chris_sawtell · · Score: 2, Informative · on Teaching Primary School Students Programming?
    Squeakland is the site to go to. Squeak is a pure Smalltalk with many extra objects and methods. It gives 'children of all ages' hours of fun and games, while teaching one of the most productive programming environments ever created. A programming foundation using Squeak can lead directly to a professional programming career using SmalltalkX or Cincom Smalltalk

    If the teacher finds the Smalltalk paradigm incomprehensible I'd suggest (s)he try Ruby. The author, quite truthfully, claims it's a 'surprise-free' language. Together with Smalltalk it's one of the few truly Object Oriented programming languages. It's been reported that both Squeak and Ruby are going to be installed on the OLPC machine. ( The OLPC folks change their minds so frequently that I'm now not certain of that though )

  6. For fast development: Smalltalk & SQL by chris_sawtell · · Score: 1 · on Starting an Education in IT?
    It'll stand you in good stead to learn Smalltalk. Now for the Free Database of choice:- And the books to study:- Get your head around that lot and you will be a very valuable item. Toss in a modicum of accounting knowledge to ice the cake.
    Everything mentioned in the above links is $ free.
  7. The best starting out language is ... by chris_sawtell · · Score: 1 · on Is Visual Basic a Good Beginner's Language?

    Smalltalk, because you are completely isolated from the boring mechanics of programming. Nasty things like files, editors, compilers, linkers.
    http://www.smalltalk.org/main/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk

    Smalltalk, because there are 2 very good free (gratis),
    http://www.exept.de/exept/english/Smalltalk/frame_ uebersicht.html
    http://smalltalk.cincom.com/index.ssp

    and at least 2 Free ( Libre ) implementations.
    http://www.squeak.org/
    http://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/smalltalk.ht ml

    Smalltalk, because is was deliberately designed for small people to have fun,
    yet you can grow-up with it.
    http://www.squeakland.org/

    Smalltalk, because it is well documented.
    http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html
    http://www.whysmalltalk.com/tutorials/visualworks. htm

    In a couple of words, it Just Works, and your sanity will not be harmed.

    If you can't drop the "program in a file" paradigm, then checkout
    http://www.ruby-lang.org/
    http://www.python.org/

    Don't even dream about anything BASIC because your dreams will turn into really horrendous nightmares before you can even turn around twice.

  8. Re:Squeak and e-toys by chris_sawtell · · Score: 1 · on Introducing Children to Computers?
    Under Linux with X-11, Squeak can be set up to be its own window manager. Dropping the Gnome, KDE etc. layer from the software stack results in a speed increase which is quite remarkable. It's then just about useable on a 400MHz P/II.

    While Squeak, as in the e-Toys environment, as its name implies, is a plaything, but it's a pretty good plaything none the less. It leads directly on to the commercial Smalltalks which are arguably the premier 'productivity' language. Onward links include:-

    1. Squeakland for the e-Toys.
    2. Squeak Smalltalk The Language itself.
    3. The Smalltalk Community Portal
    4. SmalltalkX A brilliant super-fast implementation.
    5. Cincom Smalltalk The direct decendant from the original Xerox PARC version.
  9. Try Smalltalk by chris_sawtell · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Replacing FileMaker with Free Software?

    It's go a steep learning curve but the view from the top is just fantastic. There are many vendors of which Cincom is probably the best known. It has a superb data-entry form generator and several database interfaces. PostgreSQL is one. Also SmalltalkX offers a very good free (beer) implementation.

  10. Other Smalltalk's available for *nix by Lord+of+the+Fries · · Score: 5, Informative · on Visual Age for Smalltalk For Non-Comm Use
    There are other Smalltalk flavors available for *nix platforms as well.


    I've used 'em all, each has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on what you're trying to do. They're all Smalltalk though, and that makes 'em great!
  11. Smalltalk is for small people. by chris_sawtell · · Score: 2, Interesting · on The Little Coder's Predicament

    Squeak smalltalk is a briliant language for smalls. Runs on all small computers under your o/s of choice. Your work will be completely shareable because the Virtual Machine is identical on all hardware platforms. It leads on to the the most productive language ever created.

    Squeak smalltalk for kids

    Squeak smalltalk for grownups

    Smalltalk for business

    Smalltalk for engineers - Very fast.

    There are many others, have a look through The Smalltalk Portal.

    Just remember that with 30 years of developemnt it just works!

  12. Smalltalk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Competitive Cross-Platform Development?

    Take a look at these sites:

    Squeak (Apple's Implementation of Smalltalk-80)

    Smalltalk/X from Exept Software

    Cheers!

  13. Smalltalk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Competitive Cross-Platform Development?

    Take a look at these sites:

    Squeak (Apple's Implementation of Smalltalk-80)

    Smalltalk/X from Exept Software

    Cheers!

  14. Re:How about Smalltalk? by Ken+Treis · · Score: 1 · on Cross-Platform Development Tools?
    There are at least 2, maybe 3 Smalltalk flavors that would allow cross-platform development with less pain than Java:
    • Squeak (www.squeak.org) is bit-compatible across several platforms -- just ftp your image over and run it. Open-source under a liberal license.
    • VisualWorks (www.cincom.com/visualworks/) also runs bit-identical across Linux, Solaris, Windows 95/98/NT, PowerMac, HP-UX, etc. My personal favorite, though it's not truly open source. You can see all of the source to the class libraries, you just have to pay the vendor when you want to deploy
    • Smalltalk X (www.exept.de) has recently been ported to NT.

    • We have a large machine control system written in VisualWorks that we ported to Linux one afternoon (in about 45 minutes) -- the only difficulties were external Windows DLL calls that we were making (e.g., bring up the native windows file dialog).

      See also: www.whysmalltalk.com