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Re: [Help-smalltalk] GNU vs. Squeak vs. VW
From: |
Paolo Bonzini |
Subject: |
Re: [Help-smalltalk] GNU vs. Squeak vs. VW |
Date: |
Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:26:10 -0400 |
User-agent: |
Thunderbird 2.0.0.4 (Macintosh/20070604) |
Squeak is probably my leading contender, though it needs some serious
work before I could use it. In its favor, it appears to be rock solid.
I have yet to uncover an old Squeak image that would not load. I have
managed to crash it doing 3D graphics, but even that is rare.
Agreed.
Squeak's GUI feel is horrible.
Agreed :-)
Other items such as database connectivity, SSL sockets, etc. are either
available or are evolving. My reading about GNU suggests you have at
least strong starts in many useful areas.
I'll put things straight: DB connectivity is limited to MySQL but Glorp
is there (ported to MySQL). It may suffer a little bitrot but nothing
paramount and it is on my to-do list to fix it.
SSL sockets are not there though I think that GnuTLS bindings are not
hard to do. Seaside may come at next Camp Smalltalk, though I won't
swear anything until I see it.
Re GNU, licensing is of some concern. I have seen some
softening/clarification of the terms to favor proprietary software.
Yes, that's mostly related to not worry writers of proprietary software
that use bindings to external libraries.
Are you at all interested in stretching GNU Smalltalk to compete with VW
as a platform for building GUI software? Putting that question to the
Squeak community yields answers such as "don't break our toy, "
My answer is: this is free software developed by volunteers. I had
better concentrate *my* free-time energies to produce something
concrete, and that turns out to be a headless tool. 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!
My only sort of "request" would be to have a mechanism to aid
re-exporting as files the stuff developed in graphical environments.
Right now the browser is mostly used as a "browser", but if people start
using it more I'd say it would become more important.
Anyway, let's not make it a "vs." as I believe that everything has its
own unique place in the world.
The caveat would be that I need to be able to maintain
ownership of and even sell things that are unique to my work while
helping to improve the open system.
Please clarify, though I am pretty positive that there is nothing to
worry about.
Paolo