RailsConf 09: Robert Martin, "What Killed Smalltalk Could K

Robert Martin (Object Mentor, Inc.)
"What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too"

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• rails
• railsconf
• oreilly media
• open source
• ruby

[ShawnMilo]

Not a boring topic -- actually many different, very interesting topics in one talk.

I'm a Python programmer and I still found the entire talk to be relevant and important.

[kefsound]

4 viewers use PHP.

[berkut2006]

@kefsound

lol

[sindbad1900]

I'd say Sun killed Smalltalk, in short. If they'd chosen Smalltalk instead of Java, we'd likely be better off now.

[randito]

What a fantastic speaker...

[stingerster]

@fdeutschs Obj C is evolving and has a large sponsor behind it. As the revisions continue it picks up the best features from other languages as well. But, it's foundation was built on ideals it took from smalltalk. It's possible by means discipline to stay on the smalltalk path within ObjC.

[fdeutschs]

@stingerster No way ! I personally think it totally kills the elegance of the Smalltalk language. Is not that bad but I find it very confusing syntax, particulary dealing with the different ways to handle memory, and not that dynamic as ST or Java. My point of view, of course.

[stingerster]

@fdeutschs Objective C

[stingerster]

@zyrgzyrg Sure it does.

[Tygryss84]

not that I don't like bob, but I get the feeling that if you seen one his talk, you've seen them all :) - He's a great speeker, and enjoy his listening to him, it's just that I don't feel I learned anything :) - but still it's an hour well spent :)

[zyrgzyrg]

@stingerster Are you kinda stupid?

Speed do't mean a damn thing for enterprise.

[fdeutschs]

What killed Smalltalk were the people who was in control of it (ParcPlace). They just throw the towel against Java, which at that time was orders of magnitude inferior in almost all angles. Problem with Smalltalk was it did not evolve to solve its weak aspects, like real multithread with Java semantics like. It took years for Sun and the community to make Java what it is now. I just wonder what would be if Smalltalk would have that leverage.