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Dolphin Smalltalk and the new WinRT

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bmicha...@gmail.com

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Apr 18, 2012, 1:45:27 PM4/18/12
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Hello,

Over the years many of us have asked Andy whether a .NET version of Dolphin Smalltalk could be delivered. Unfortunately, the amount of work to do this would not be cost effective and basically it never really got out of the idea phase.

However, with the introduction of the new WinRT that is being introduced in Windows 8, tablets, and Windows Phones could this be exactly what Dolphin needs.

Basically the WinRT is an unmanaged. Examination of the runtime libraries reveal that they are built upon Win32 API.

WinRT is essentially a COM-based API, although relying on an enhanced COM.

Do you think Dolphin could be modified to use the WinRT api and therefore make it a great development platform for not only Windows applications but also Windows tablets and Windows Phone applications?


Arun R

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Jul 20, 2012, 2:06:30 AM7/20/12
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On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:45:27 AM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:
> Do you think Dolphin could be modified to use the WinRT api and therefore make it a great development platform for not only Windows applications but also Windows tablets and Windows Phone applications?

+1. This could really propel Dolphin usage - esp. for the tablet and phone platforms. I wonder how Dolphin will fare on these platforms that demand applications that are power efficient.

geoff

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Jul 24, 2012, 9:02:58 PM7/24/12
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> I wonder how Dolphin will fare on these platforms
> [tablet and phone]

If the VM is not kept up to date then they will not fare well. Cincom is
the only commercial ST that has kept their VM updated. They have 64 bit
support, Unicode, etc. A simple test is to try Unicode on your ST platform,
or, more complicated, try the IE active-x control and watch a youtube video.
It works perfectly on VW.

VM work is highly specialized and technical. Not many can do it.

I just saw a bulletin where VW now has external encryption (I assume using
openssl), and updated web services, like wsdl 2.0 and soap 1.3. They really
hustle with new features and that is what it takes for a language to branch
out to other platforms and/or grow.


Arun R

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Aug 6, 2012, 9:36:14 PM8/6/12
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Thanks for that pointer. Yes they are clearly leading with features. However I simply cannot agree with their licensing model.

James Foster

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Aug 17, 2012, 6:21:46 PM8/17/12
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On Tuesday, July 24, 2012 6:02:58 PM UTC-7, geoff wrote:
> Cincom is the only commercial ST that has kept their VM updated.
> They have 64 bit support, Unicode, etc.

In what way would you say that GemStone/S 64 Bit is not updated?

geoff

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Aug 19, 2012, 1:26:41 AM8/19/12
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> In what way would you say that GemStone/S 64 Bit is not updated?

Gemstone is awesome but I was referring to the general, non-DB programming
environments like Dolphin and VW.

Of all the ST's, Gemstone is #1.


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