Smalltalk and Python

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <3a36c85e.4409136 at News.CIS.DFN.DE>, costas at springmail.com (Costas Menico) wrote:

><snip>..........
>>
>>-- Russell
>>
>>Having said that Python is not really a great substitute for Smalltalk, 
>>I will admit that I am working on a reasonable scale GUI project in 
>>Python because even though I adore ST I have doubts about ST's long-term 
>>viability (cincom seems to be back to ParcPlace's old tricks on insane 
>>pricing) and it'd be an incredibly hard sell to my management. I may be 
>>setting up for failure, due to Python's mediocre GUI, but I'm having a 
>>go at it.
>
>Cincom is not the only Smalltalk out there. What is wrong with the
>other lower cost ones?

I need something that is:
-- reasonably well supported
- likely to be around for awhile
- runs on Mac, unix and possibly PC
- can write GUI code with reasonably native look and feel

I would also prefer a language that is fairly clean and not evolving very quickly (which I dearly hope Squeak eventually becomes).

I don't think there is a Smalltalk that fits these requirements other than Cincom, is there?
- Squeak runs on everything but its GUI stuff is slow and uses a rooted main window, making it pretty hopeless for native feel, at least on Mac
- IBM and Dolphin are mature but only runs on PC and (IBM) unix
- I tried QKS years ago but got tired of it always being in beta, always promises for a real release some year.

Also, as I said, it'd be a tough fight. The conservatism in astronomy is astonishing. If it's not C or Perl then it's going to be a struggle to put it through. We're already using Python and selling it as a "better Perl", but for me to push Smalltalk there has to be an obvious first-class implementation that we can afford and will obviously do what we need. Cincom is too expensive, and given their pricing policies I expect it to continue to be a language with limited public knowledge and acceptance.

-- Russell