[Edu-sig] Shuttleworth Summit

[Ian Bicking]

Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
> I think the Jython-based approach might be easiest, though one then has to 
> wrestle with other Java community and licensing issues. [I personally 
> think the Squeak approach would be more stable and maintainable though, 
> just 2000 lines of core C to port per platform, with widgets built on 
> that, and a dynamic loading facility for other native code.] 

I'm not clear what the advantage of this kind of strategy is over 
CPython.  Sure, 2000 lines of C is easier to port, but CPython is 
ported, so that's not a problem.  The graphical layer isn't portable, 
but pygame is fairly portable and runs on a more optimized layer (SDL) 
than what Squeak runs on (AFAIK -- though I haven't payed any attention 
to what their graphical infrastructure is like for years).

I guess I just don't understand the complaints about Python graphics. 
Sure, there's work to do, but the core graphics capabilities provide a 
solid foundation, in addition to some good higher level things as well 
(like VPython).  If Squeak has some good higher-level ideas, then those 
would be ported, I don't see any way you could leverage the Squeak code 
directly.

As for actually integrating with Smalltalk, I suspect embedding the 
Squeak VM in Python is feasible.


-- 
Ian Bicking  |  ianb at colorstudy.com  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org