Interesting project
There was a post the other day in cls looking for people interested in building a "next generation" development environment for Java. The post contrasted what Eclipse does vs. what they want to do. They point you here for a listing of points to consider. Seems to me that these guys were inspired by Smalltalk and/or Lisp tools in their desire to create a Java environment. It will be interesting to see whether they get anywhere - I rather suspect that any serious work down that path will result in re-building a significant portion of Smalltalk or Lisp along the way.
Comments
Interesting project
[Alex Peake] June 20, 2003 15:19:40.429
If they do what I imagine would be a great step forward, then it will be *way* beyond Lisp or Smalltalk. Take a look at Autodesk Architectural Studio for a glimpse of what I have in mind. Alex
Beyond Lisp or Smalltalk...
[Roly] June 21, 2003 10:23:03.789
Yup, I think "beyond Lisp or Smalltalk" is a fair summary. Lisp and Smalltalk have a lot to bring to the table when thinking about radical new ways to implement statically typed languages...but statically typed languages have a lot to say about how Lisp and Smalltalk might best be implemented.
Re: Beyond Lisp or Smalltalk...
[James Robertson] June 21, 2003 11:15:43.386
Comment on Beyond Lisp or Smalltalk... by James Robertson
Actually, I think statically typed languages do have a lot to say about how to implement things like Smalltalk or Lisp - they serve as perfect examples of what not to do, and why :)
Anti-Static Typing (Again)
[Alex Peake] June 21, 2003 19:54:05.413
This is (I think) the discussion that never ends! Part of it, I think, comes from 1) a misunderstanding of each world, and 2) the kind of applications one develops. On the "misunderstanding" -- I get the feeling that most from the "dynamic" side do not understand such ideas (from ML) as "polymorphic types" and "functors" -- which close the gap significantly. Similarly, there are kinds of app where compile time type checking (including polymorphic types) can really help (and of course there are others where it is not that important). Alex
New Job!
[Andrew Birkett's blog] July 25, 2003 6:37:44.831
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New Job!
I'll shortly be leaving Voxar, after five years there. In September I'll be starting at Ergnosis. They're a Bristol-based company, but I'll still be living in Edinburgh and will be telecommuting most of the time. I'm very excited to be......