I've done projects with both statically typed and dynamically typed languagesBefore this degenerates into static type checking versus dynamic type checking, let's note that the notions expressed in the article are independent of programming language.

It's much easier to make changes to a sculpture made with modelling clay than it is with marble - often a mistake with marble will require that you throw out the sculpture and start over. Where-as we would just flatten the modelling clay? (Good analogies are hard to find.)The project should probably have been done in a 'scripting' language...

'my language is better than your language' shouting matches... almost meaningless Always we need to ask: better for what purpose; better according to what criteria.Anyway, instead of learning another language this year, I'll be exploring a programming paradigm that is almost completely foreign to me.Be over-ambitious! Learn both a new language...

I have no experience of the Cincom Smalltalk so I may yet be proven to be wrong but when I use a GUI based application on any platform I expect it to look and feel like a native application of that platform.Mis-informed rather than wrong ;-)There are many Smalltalk implementations - don't judge Smalltalk by looking at Squeak.IBM Smalltalk used...

> > Only Java has a true platform that includes an OS> > independent library of software.> > For some value of 'OS independent library'. By default> Java based GUIs follow the Unix / Windows model and> require special code to get things to work correctly> under OS X.Smalltalk on OS...

> Only Java has a true platform that includes an OS > independent library of software. That doesn't seem to be correct - guess it depends how you define 'true platform'.Smalltalk has long provided a 'true platform' that includes an OS independent library of software. > What I was suggesting about the V7 UNIX code ...> is that it demonstrates a...

For a more detailed account:Models of Software Acceptance: How Winners WinRichard P. Gabrielhttp://www.dreamsongs.com/NewFiles/AcceptanceModels.pdf

Are there new uses that didn't exist in Smalltalk?Here are some Smalltalk equivalents:> - to pass a 'discriminating' function, like in > Enumerable.sort() > > array_of_persons.sort { |p1,p2|> p1.name p2.name> }Smalltalk has a special SortedCollection, so we might sayarray_of_persons asSortedCollection: [:p1 :p2| p1 name or for an in-place sort...

by supporting closures as expressions you can say "after this, do that" instead of "after this, do that thing which I defined somewhere else"We can create an expression that will apply a function after a specific delay, and hold that expression in a variable and invoke it a little later:void->void delayedFunction(int msDelay, void->void fun){...

> Another nice feature of anonymous closures is that I have> more control over the order of operationsSeems like this is the same with named or anonymous functions (in Nice http://nice.sourceforge.net/index.html )void after(int msDelay, void->void fun){ fun();}void main(String[] args){ // named function after(msDelay: 500, fun: print_doing_it);...

the first reason is to respect the history of LispHow strange then to talk of blocks (like this Smalltalk) rather than lambdadictionary keysDo: [:key| *do something with key* ]dictionary keysAndValuesDo: [:key :value| *do something with key and value* ]In an OO language like Smalltalk, all the 'named functions' are object methods - they are...

why blocks are so widely known as "nameless functions" Often called 'anonymous functions' - simply that they are functions that don't have a name. More interesting to ask why they are also called lambda functions, see the informal description:http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculusterm or concept that encompasses both named and nameless...

Of course, this received wisdom is just so much crap...As a catch phrase, it is often used to justify... Seems like your "problem with the slogan" has nothing to do with the quality of the "received wisdom" and everything to do with how people have use it to argue for particular design decisions.The slogan seems to be a variation on Voltaire:...

The classic essay on "worse is better" is either misunderstood or wrongMisunderstood even in this weblog ;-)"The fact that C produced faster code, was easier to master, was easier to use in groups, and ran well on less expensive hardware were not considerations that Gabriel found important."Reading "Gabriel's original writing" we find: "Both...

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