Why is Smalltalk still a niche language? That's a very good question, one I've puzzled over for many years.
I've been working in Smalltalk for twenty years. Sure, I know Java and C++ and C#, but they can't hold a candle to Smalltalk for productivity. The basic reason is that you write 7-10 times less code in Smalltalk than in a hybrid OOP language.
But why hasn't Smalltalk caught on? Partly it's the learning curve. Smalltalk is so productive because it has huge, ANSI standardized libraries chock full of time-tested algorithms. Sorting, searching, hashing, secure sockets, xml, if you need it, someone has already written it. But learning what's in those libraries takes time.
The other reason is pure marketing. Managers don't write code. They read magazines and watch TV. Sun spent more money marketing Java than was spent marketing every other computer language combined, since the dawn of time. As Microsoft proves, a superior product is far less important than superior marketing.
The final factor is that C and C++ were free, and UNIX was written in them. So every CS student learned them. Undoing that mindset is difficult. Smalltalk looks weird when your brain has been prewarped.
I look at every new language that comes out. And I always run screaming back to Smalltalk, because it lets me express the problem concisely and correctly, in a much more literate, English-like form. There's nothing else like it.
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Why is Smalltalk still a niche language? That's a very good question, one I've puzzled over for many years.
I've been working in Smalltalk for twenty years. Sure, I know Java and C++ and C#, but they can't hold a candle to Smalltalk for productivity. The basic reason is that you write 7-10 times less code in Smalltalk than in a hybrid OOP language.
But why hasn't Smalltalk caught on? Partly it's the learning curve. Smalltalk is so productive because it has huge, ANSI standardized libraries chock full of time-tested algorithms. Sorting, searching, hashing, secure sockets, xml, if you need it, someone has already written it. But learning what's in those libraries takes time.
The other reason is pure marketing. Managers don't write code. They read magazines and watch TV. Sun spent more money marketing Java than was spent marketing every other computer language combined, since the dawn of time. As Microsoft proves, a superior product is far less important than superior marketing.
The final factor is that C and C++ were free, and UNIX was written in them. So every CS student learned them. Undoing that mindset is difficult. Smalltalk looks weird when your brain has been prewarped.
I look at every new language that comes out. And I always run screaming back to Smalltalk, because it lets me express the problem concisely and correctly, in a much more literate, English-like form. There's nothing else like it.