Re: [Help-smalltalk] GNU vs. Squeak vs. VW

[Stephen Compall]

Bill Schwab wrote:
> I am a long-time Smalltalk addict with a lot of Dolphin-based code.  I
> would be completely happy were it not for what I see as a disturbing
> trend of bloat, bugs, and licensing hassles from Microsoft.  Every OS
> revision brings a round of "what did they break this time?"  I hate to
> think what Vista would be like.
>
> Dolphin on Wine is one possible solution, though I worry about how Wine
> decides which bugs to emulate, the quality of their reverse engineering,
> etc.

I assume that you are looking for a way to move to GNU/Linux or another 
Free UN*X-y OS.

> Squeak's streams bother me.  IMHO
>
>     'hello' readStream next:20
>
> should raise an error; #nextAvailable: offers a way to "safely" get
> truncated results.  I care because I do a lot of sometimes very strict
> parsing, and want to know ASAP when something is not as expected.

Would be hard to change without reopening a Smalltalk standardization 
process.

> Re GNU, licensing is of some concern.  I have seen some
> softening/clarification of the terms to favor proprietary software. 
> There are things I am willing to give away, but I would be crazy to open
> everything, so I need a system that will accommodate internal production
> use as well as commercial deployment.  For now, let's assume things are
> ok, though comments are welcome.

Probably; see Section 1.5 "Licensing of GNU Smalltalk" in the current 
manual.  It's not so much "favoring" proprietary software as allowing 
for the possibility of its existence.

Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> But if somebody
> wants to *add* something more, I'm all good with that and (lo and
> behold) RMS happens to desire that more than having a great headless
> Smalltalk!

Wha-what's going on here?

--
;;; Stephen Compall ** http://scompall.nocandysw.com/blog **
But you know how reluctant paranormal phenomena are to reveal
themselves when skeptics are present. --Robert Sheaffer, SkI 9/2003