Rob Rothwell | 18 Apr 00:45

Re: Visual Studio 2008

Nico,

Thanks for sharing your first hand experience.  I still don't think of myself as being "good" with Smalltalk, meaning I do not find the most compact way of doing most things, but I am constantly comparing what I can do to my experience with VB which was always FRUSTRATED.  Anytime I wanted to do "that one little thing" that wasn't "built in," it was terrible.

Thanks again; I'll pass this on!

Rob

On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 7:06 PM, Nicolas Petton <petton.nicolas <at> gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Rob,

I worked on the VS 2008 project all last summer for a local company.
It was very painful. IMHO, when you know Smalltalk and its environment,
you absolutely don't want to go back. It seems that you have the choice,
while I didn't.

Ok, building the UI with VS is easy. But when you need to edit the code
by hand, it's a nightmare. But, correct me if I'm wrong, building the UI
with Aida or Seaside is very easy too, it only takes a few minutes, and
you have the advantage of readability, easy maintenance and portability.
Not to mention all smalltalk tools like the debugger, it changed my
life :)

I wrote somewhere on the net a quotation:

question: "Why do people use C++ or Java instead of Smalltalk?"
answer: "Why do they smoke?"

Cheers!

Nico

Le jeudi 17 avril 2008 à 16:24 -0400, Rob Rothwell a écrit :
> We have another application developer at our hospital who has been
> looking at Visual Studio 2008.
>
> Don't send the hate mail...!
>
> We were listing pro's and con's of Smalltalk with Aida (or yes, even
> Seaside!) vs Visual Studio, and I came to the conclusion that it
> depends on the problem you are trying to solve.  The "instant" drag
> and drop data sources and page layouts in Visual Studio were certainly
> impressive, but the underlying code is most definitely NOT impressive.
>
> Anyway, my advice was if you have a complex problem domain, Smalltalk
> is hands down the winner.  If all you need to do is create Crystal
> Reports and paged tables, tracking boards, that sort of thing, and you
> don't even need to "code," why NOT use Visual Studio.  But the minute
> you need to go a little deeper, the code generated by Visual Studio
> is, pardon my language, going to kick you in the ass (in my opinion).
>
> In other words, once your drag and drop days are over, you are not
> having fun anymore!
>
> Any other thoughts, so I can help him make an intelligent decision?
> Maybe both are right, depending on the job?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rob
> _______________________________________________
> Aida mailing list
> Aida <at> aidaweb.si
> http://lists.aidaweb.si/mailman/listinfo/aida

<div>
<p>Nico,<br><br>Thanks for sharing your first hand experience.&nbsp; I still don't think of myself as being "good" with Smalltalk, meaning I do not find the most compact way of doing most things, but I am constantly comparing what I can do to my experience with VB which was always FRUSTRATED.&nbsp; Anytime I wanted to do "that one little thing" that wasn't "built in," it was terrible.<br><br>Thanks again; I'll pass this on!<br><br>Rob<br><br>On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 7:06 PM, Nicolas Petton &lt;<a href="mailto:petton.nicolas <at> gmail.com">petton.nicolas <at> gmail.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br></p>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote">Hi Rob,<br><br>
I worked on the VS 2008 project all last summer for a local company.<br>
It was very painful. IMHO, when you know Smalltalk and its environment,<br>
you absolutely don't want to go back. It seems that you have the choice,<br>
while I didn't.<br><br>
Ok, building the UI with VS is easy. But when you need to edit the code<br>
by hand, it's a nightmare. But, correct me if I'm wrong, building the UI<br>
with Aida or Seaside is very easy too, it only takes a few minutes, and<br>
you have the advantage of readability, easy maintenance and portability.<br>
Not to mention all smalltalk tools like the debugger, it changed my<br>
life :)<br><br>
I wrote somewhere on the net a quotation:<br><br>
question: "Why do people use C++ or Java instead of Smalltalk?"<br>
answer: "Why do they smoke?"<br><br>
Cheers!<br><br>
Nico<br><br>
Le jeudi 17 avril 2008 &agrave; 16:24 -0400, Rob Rothwell a &eacute;crit :<br><div>
<div></div>
<div class="Wj3C7c">&gt; We have another application developer at our hospital who has been<br>
&gt; looking at Visual Studio 2008.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Don't send the hate mail...!<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; We were listing pro's and con's of Smalltalk with Aida (or yes, even<br>
&gt; Seaside!) vs Visual Studio, and I came to the conclusion that it<br>
&gt; depends on the problem you are trying to solve. &nbsp;The "instant" drag<br>
&gt; and drop data sources and page layouts in Visual Studio were certainly<br>
&gt; impressive, but the underlying code is most definitely NOT impressive.<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Anyway, my advice was if you have a complex problem domain, Smalltalk<br>
&gt; is hands down the winner. &nbsp;If all you need to do is create Crystal<br>
&gt; Reports and paged tables, tracking boards, that sort of thing, and you<br>
&gt; don't even need to "code," why NOT use Visual Studio. &nbsp;But the minute<br>
&gt; you need to go a little deeper, the code generated by Visual Studio<br>
&gt; is, pardon my language, going to kick you in the ass (in my opinion).<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; In other words, once your drag and drop days are over, you are not<br>
&gt; having fun anymore!<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Any other thoughts, so I can help him make an intelligent decision?<br>
&gt; Maybe both are right, depending on the job?<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Thanks,<br>
&gt;<br>
&gt; Rob<br>
</div>
</div>&gt; _______________________________________________<br>
&gt; Aida mailing list<br>
&gt; <a href="mailto:Aida <at> aidaweb.si">Aida <at> aidaweb.si</a><br>
&gt; <a href="http://lists.aidaweb.si/mailman/listinfo/aida" target="_blank">http://lists.aidaweb.si/mailman/listinfo/aida</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>

Gmane