Re: [Pharo-users] Slashdot Submission

[Richard Eng]

I tried that tack. I said Pharo is only 8 years old, but some people come
back and tell me that Pharo is still essentially Smalltalk. It's hard for
me to disagree.

Richard

On 1 January 2017 at 11:27, stepharong  wrote:

> Since people believe that new equals better, we market Pharo as new.
> And Pharo is new and it will continue to improve so this is not even a lie
> :)
>
> There is a reason why we decided to go that road and avoid to always say
> to people that we use a language
> designed nearly 40 years ago.
>
> But you can try :)
>
> Stef
>
>
>
> On Sun, 01 Jan 2017 14:05:12 +0100, horrido 
> wrote:
>
> Wow! *In just one day*, the Slashdot story added another thousand pageviews
>> to my TechBeacon article!
>>
>> However, if you look at the comments, there's an awful lot of disdain for
>> Smalltalk. It appears that Slashdot is inhabited by a lot of ignorant and
>> opinionated programmers. I did not realize this.
>>
>> I'm trying to respond to the negative comments, but it's getting
>> overwhelming...
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Slashdot
>> -Submission-tp4928235p4928493.html
>> Sent from the Pharo Smalltalk Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>
> --
> Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
>

[Pharo-users] Joyeux Noël, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, vrolijk kerstfeest, glædelig jul, καλά Χριστούγεννα

[Richard Eng]

https://medium.com/smalltalk-talk/why-no-language-innovations-e1dfed0a7a62

Cheers,
Richard

[Pharo-users] A Suggested Promotion

[Richard Eng]

I have a suggestion for future Smalltalk advocates...

The advent of Pi Zero last month is an interesting opportunity. This is a
very, very cheap Raspberry Pi. Anyone can afford it. I'm thinking of kids,
in particular.

What if we could get kids to delve into Squeak or Pharo (Squeak is better
optimized for Raspberry Pi) via the Pi Zero? A competition could be set up
in various countries, such as Canada, Britain, Australia, Japan, etc.,
where the best student submission for a Smalltalk-based Pi Zero application
would win a small scholarship prize (say, $500). A panel of judges in each
country would decide the winner.

The contest would be much less ambitious than my now-defunct Canadian
Smalltalk Competition

(CSC).
Less control (no real need to prevent cheating). Easier to raise the prize
money. The nice thing is that it would be a multi-national promotion (it's
tough getting a national school competition like CSC going in other
countries).

Of course, because it's less ambitious, we can expect to reach fewer kids.
Instead of thousands, probably more like hundreds. I could be totally wrong
on this; I could be totally surprised!

I might even come out of retirement

to
offer some creative services (eg, promotional graphics, websites, etc.). 😁

Anyway, it was just an interesting thought I had. Don't know if it stands
up to scrutiny.

Cheers,
Richard

[Pharo-users] Adieu, abschied, addio, despedida, afscheid, farväl, прощальный привет.

[Richard Eng]

I bid farewell to everyone. Best of luck to Pharo.

https://medium.com/@richardeng/today-is-the-first-anniversary-of-smalltalk-renaissance-b4bd0c43538c

Cheers,
Richard

[Pharo-users] PharoJVM

[Richard Eng]

According to TIOBE, which is hardly a reliable metric, this month Java and
Python are enjoying a massive upswing in popularity. In fact, TIOBE will
most likely name Java *Programming Language of the Year* for 2015. (Both
languages have been on an upward trajectory all year.)

It's not hard to understand why Java's popularity is improving. Android
programming is becoming more important, as the platform has begun to exceed
iOS in terms of user experience with the advent of Lollipop and
Marshmallow. Then there's the rise of the "Internet of Things," where Java
seems to be well-suited.

(I'm not sure what explains Python's bump in popularity, though. Maybe
there's an increasing appetite for languages that are easy to learn. A
clean, simple syntax is very, very important!)

I think, more than ever, we need to have Smalltalk on the JVM. Java cannot
be allowed to hog the limelight of IT. I was pinning my hopes on Redline,
but I'm not sanguine about its future progress.

Rather than waste time with PharoJS, wouldn't it be more prudent to focus
on putting Pharo on the JVM?