OT: Alternative code

gregarican

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Nov 9, 2005, 8:47:39 AM11/9/05

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Apologies for a slightly OT question. Due to some portability issues
I'm having with a Ruby app I've developed I am considering rewriting it
in Smalltalk. I've never used Smalltalk before, but have read some
FAQ's and tutorials. I'm wondering if there are any major gotchas that
anyone here might know of. Here are the additional areas that are above
and beyond the core Ruby library stuff:

. XMLRPC client calls
. DBI calls to SQL Server using an OLEDB connection
. Win32API calls

Can I include such functionality easily "out of the box" with Smalltalk
or would I have to reinvent the wheel? I have posted this question in
the c.l.s newsgroup as well, but would appreciate a Ruby perspective.
Out of any language I've used so far Ruby is the one that I prefer
above all. It's the cleanest, most logical, and most enjoyable to use.
I sincerely hate having to abandon it for this one particular app, but
I have little choice it seems. So figuring that Squeak fits my
portability requirements I am considering giving it a shot. But if the
gotchas are too much to surmount then I might have to just forget about
porting my app to a Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA...

Robert Klemme

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Nov 9, 2005, 9:08:42 AM11/9/05

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Did you consider Java? It's cross platform and has all three mentioned
above if you need win32api only for UI.

Kind regards

robert

gregarican

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Nov 9, 2005, 9:12:58 AM11/9/05

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Robert Klemme wrote:

> Did you consider Java? It's cross platform and has all three mentioned
> above if you need win32api only for UI.

I wasn't aware that I could deploy Java apps on a Windows Mobile PDA. I
know I couldn't readily deploy Java apps on the Sharp Zaurus PDA. They
have a couple of one-off Java implmentations (Kaffe and some others
maybe?). From what I read I could deploy Smalltalk apps on the Palm OS
platform using PocketSmalltalk and on the Windows Mobile platform using
squeak.

Robert Klemme

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Nov 9, 2005, 9:20:06 AM11/9/05

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To prevent misunderstandings: I don't know whether there is a JRE for your
platform. But if there was, then it might be an option.

robert

gregarican

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Nov 9, 2005, 10:26:26 AM11/9/05

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Checking this thread -->
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=408223&start=0&tstart=0
<-- it appears as if there is still no JRE for the Windows Mobile
platform. It would be nice, but I guess I'm off to try to teach myself
Smalltalk this weekend.

Martin DeMello

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Nov 9, 2005, 11:54:18 AM11/9/05

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Smalltalk is probably more fun to learn than Java anyway.

martin

Daryl Richter

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Nov 9, 2005, 12:25:54 PM11/9/05

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gregarican wrote:
> Apologies for a slightly OT question. Due to some portability issues
> I'm having with a Ruby app I've developed I am considering rewriting it
> in Smalltalk. I've never used Smalltalk before, but have read some
> FAQ's and tutorials. I'm wondering if there are any major gotchas that
> anyone here might know of. Here are the additional areas that are above
> and beyond the core Ruby library stuff:
>

> .. XMLRPC client calls
> .. DBI calls to SQL Server using an OLEDB connection
> .. Win32API calls

>
> Can I include such functionality easily "out of the box" with Smalltalk
> or would I have to reinvent the wheel? I have posted this question in
> the c.l.s newsgroup as well, but would appreciate a Ruby perspective.
> Out of any language I've used so far Ruby is the one that I prefer
> above all. It's the cleanest, most logical, and most enjoyable to use.
> I sincerely hate having to abandon it for this one particular app, but
> I have little choice it seems. So figuring that Squeak fits my
> portability requirements I am considering giving it a shot. But if the
> gotchas are too much to surmount then I might have to just forget about
> porting my app to a Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA...
>
>
>

Depending on licensing needs, you may want to consider VisualWorks:

http://smalltalk.cincom.com/prodinformation/index.ssp

"VisualWorks offers a complete solution for Windows® (95/98/ME/NT/2000),
PowerMac, Intel Linux, AIX, SGI Irix, Compaq UNIX, HP-UX, and Solaris."

It supports all 3 of your requirements above and is a very robust and
time-proven development platform. It's free for evaluation /
non-commercial purposes.

--
Daryl

gregarican

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Nov 9, 2005, 12:37:51 PM11/9/05

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Daryl Richter wrote:

> Depending on licensing needs, you may want to consider VisualWorks:

Actually I have vw7.3nc. Since I am developing this application for
in-house use with no resale this is a possibility. Just didn't see
where I could deploy my Smalltalk code with the different VM's. I
didn't see where to download the various VM's. I would need one for
i386 Win32, one for ARM Linux, and another for ARM Windows Mobile. The
ARM Linux VM might not be a possibility from the blurb, but at least I
can check out the other VM's.

gregarican

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Nov 9, 2005, 12:44:39 PM11/9/05

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Martin DeMello wrote:

> Smalltalk is probably more fun to learn than Java anyway.
>
> martin

True that. It's kind of a throwback vibe. Like back in the day with
Logo. Move that turtle :-)

Daryl Richter

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Nov 9, 2005, 1:12:42 PM11/9/05

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They're all there in the /bin directory. The excellent cross-platform
support is a very strong attribute of VW.

--
Daryl

Christophe Grandsire

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Nov 9, 2005, 2:42:44 PM11/9/05

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Selon Martin DeMello :

>
> Smalltalk is probably more fun to learn than Java anyway.
>

I can't agree more! Although both language suffer from a common problem:
long-windedness (Smalltalk, given the typical length of method names,
might as well be called Longtalk, and don't start me about Java ;) ),
and ugly AllCamelCase. *shivers*

But Smalltalk kind of makes up with one nice aesthetical feature: it
doesn't look like a bastard child of C! ;)
--
Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.