Seaside/Squeak, Ruby

[Yanni Chiu]

Sy Ali wrote:
> ....  So if they don't like the
> fundamental way "print" works, they can step inside and goof around. 
> With this in mind, some really spectacularly hackish things can be
> done.

Don't know about Ruby, but for all Smalltalks "everything is an object" is
taken to the extreme. You can change any object, even the currently executing
UI objects, which can blow you out of the water, if you're not careful. In the
case of Squeak, the virtual machine (VM) is itself written in "Slang" (a subset
of Smalltalk which maps easily to C). You generate the VM from your current
image and compile your next generation of VM - much like bootstrapping
an operating system. Another thing you can do is read another image file
in and simulate its execution in your original image. Tons of neat things
you can do.

> All in all.. at the last meeting I sat down and watched the seaside
> videos.  If it weren't for the childishly-awkward interface (thanks to
> squeak?) I would take it _very_ seriously.

Cool that you guys had a look at Seaside. I gave a Seaside presentation
at NewTLUG last Nov., BTW.

As for the childish colours, it's a holdover from Squeak's emergence
from Apple/Disney in 1995. One of the principals, Alan Kay (famous quote
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it!", and winner of the
computer science triple-crown: Draper Prize, Turing Award, and Kyoto Prize),
was working at Disney at the time.

You're not alone in disliking the garish colours, even Squeaker's
dislike them. There are various "skins" you can apply to change
that look, which are accessible via the preferences. Apart from that
the development tools (class browsers, debugger, etc.) have not
changed much since 1980, in the way you interact with them - they
do the job well.

-- 
Yanni Chiu

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