Women in Technology

Article:		Readable Java 1.5
Subject:		Cholesterol - WTF? - I want Smalltalk
Date:		2003-10-03 22:02:31
From:		anonymous2
Response to: Cholesterol - WTF?
Snif sniff, all these syntax sugar sucks! I want Smalltalk!! ... sadly Java is so popular that I have to work with it :-( The need for generics is a myth, from C++. With today's method dispatching techniques -- like inline cache-- (researched by Sun in the Self Language) there is not really a real performance gain with generics, and static type checking. In fact static type checking bothers in a OO lang... one example: the need of javabeans that makes extensive use of reflection. I think that static type checking must be optional (like in StrongTalk... again another researh language of Sun) And the use of Iterators makes poor encapsulation of container objects. I like the Smalltalk collection aproach, with "code blocks", for example to call the "print" method in each element you can do: aCollection forEachElementDo: [:elem | elem print]. note1: forEachElementDo is not language construct is a method of the aCollection instance. note2: [ code ] creates an instance of Block

Showing messages 1 through 3 of 3.

• Cholesterol - WTF? - I want Smalltalk
  2003-11-04 19:30:35  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Generics arent all good because of any potential speed increase.
  
  They are all good because they enforce homogeneous collections - and provide errors at compile time instead of run time. Doing run time checking to enforce homogeneity is clumsy.
  
  I consider them to be like exceptions, a real bonus to increasing readability.

• Cholesterol - WTF? - I want Smalltalk
  2003-10-16 15:22:58  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  I like the way java actually works. I don't want a foreach, and I don't like the way generics would work.
  But I like java anyway.
  
  If you like codeblocks you should try ruby:
  
  aCollection.each {|elem| print elem}
  
  note1 and note2 stay valid ;)

• Cholesterol - WTF? - I want Smalltalk
  2003-10-06 15:48:25  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Yeah, that must be why languages like C++ and Java are on the way out and Smalltalk is making such a strong comeback. Sheesh!