Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Date:         Tue, 29 Sep 1992 10:23:12 CST
From:         Don Branson <C08922DB@WUVMD.BITNET>
Subject:      RE: Is Smalltalk the language for us?

  I originally asked the question "Is Smalltalk the language for us?"
Since asking the question, I have just been sitting back and watching
the conversation, which has been tremendously informative, particularly
since there are proponents of at least two camps here. (C++ and
Smalltalk.)

  One of the problems with my original question was that I didn't
specify what our project would involve.  While I was aware of this
when asking the original question, there wasn't much that could be
done about it, since we are not clear on what it is we want to do.
At some point, we are going to have a brain-storming session.  Right
now, our main goal is to understand OO programming, and understand
what we can do with it.  But, as you know, money is tight all over,
and we can't just go buy software development tools whenever we get
the urge to try something new.  (Too bad!)  Anyway, what we need to do
is to try to come up with some ideas, something concrete, which will
satisfy some need here at the University, and also be suitable for
getting our feet wet in OO.  In a sense, this is the tail wagging the
dog.  We should know what we want to do first, and then decide on the
tools.  We will have something more concrete after our brain-storming
session.  I would naturally appreciate any ideas, especially if they
relate to University work.  We are looking at possibly creating some
kind of GUI front-end for a mainframe system, or perhaps something
standalone.  Whatever we do, it needs to be something which people
will find necessary to use, so that they use it enough to give us some
helpful feedback.

  There are a couple of concerns that I have with Smalltalk.  One is
the amount of memory that it requires.  Is a minimal system 8M?  For
us, $160 to upgrade someone from 4M to 8M is significant.  Also, there
are a number of motherboards that have limits around 2M, 4M, 6M, etc.,
so it would mean adding a memory card, or upgrading the MB.  I think
that for us to tell a user that he has to have 8M won't fly.  It may
be a reasonable requirement for a pilot, however.  However, (ParcPlace)
Smalltalk is very appealing from the standpoint that we want at least
to be able to support Windows and Macs.  I think that to require a user
to have 4M would be more reasonable.

  Speed is another concern.  We have written a *small* application for
Windows using Toolbook.  It is exceedingly, excessively, very slow,
even on a 25MHz 386DX.  We have written a *small* application for the
Mac using 4th Dimension.  It's a neat package, but even running a
compiled version on a MacIISi is slow!  We need something crisp, here,
or people won't use it, and we've wasted our money, and worse yet, our
time.

  At any rate, the conversation which has taken place here on SMALK
and notes which have been privately mailed to me have been tremendously
helpful.  I never expected to see such a good response to a question
like this.  Thank you.


Don Branson
Washington University Information Systems
St. Louis, Missouri
BITNET Mail  : C08922DB@WUVMD
Internet Mail: C08922DB@WUVMD.Wustl.Edu
Snail Mail   : One Brookings Drive
               Campus Box 1110
               St. Louis, Mo. 63130
               U.S.A
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