🚀 go-pugleaf

> I am trying to compile a list of dedicated Smalltalk environments which
> are available to users.  By 'dedicated' I mean the equivalent of what
> one expects when they acquire a Xerox or Symbolics lisp machine.  The
> ones that I am aware of are:
> 
> ...
>
> I would appreciate any additions to my list if anyone knows of others.
> Also, does anyone have the experience of having developed a medium to
> large application in both Smalltalk and a lisp based system on any
> available lisp machine with some kind of message passing support?  What
> I am looking for are comparsions between the two that would show why
> one would choose one over the other.  I have lots of experience on the
> lisp side, but none on the Smalltalk one.
> 
> Thanks for your help
> 
> john malleo-roach

There is an advert on the inside cover of this month's CACM for some
ST-80 that runs on IBM PC-AT.  I forget the details, but I intend to
get it for my ATT PC 6300+ (When I get my PC 6300+).

I have had a Tektronix 4404 (about to be upgraded to 4405) for about a
year.  I spent about half time on it for about six months, until a
crash project was dumped on me.  During that time I learned Smalltalk
from scratch and wrote a Dining Philosophers demo and a fairly powerful
spreadsheet program.

I have never used lisp extensively, but I think that lisp and Smalltalk
are similar in that they are both small, elegant languages, which is
deceptive since to use them you have to learn large, complex systems.
For differences, note that lisp was essentially frozen in 196?, and
everything since then has been added on top, whereas ST was first
designed in ~1972 and has been more or less completely redesigned three
times since then.  So the fundamental object of lisp is the cons cell,
and the fundamental operation is function call.  In ST, the
fundamental object is the Object, and the fundamental operation is
remote function call (message send).  If you are interested in object
oriented programming, the basic argument for ST over lisp is that ST is
based on O-O programming, while in lisp it's a veneer over the top.  If
you are going to use a fully O-O programming style, probably there's a
performance advantage to ST, since the system is optimized for it.
Also ST is more fun than anything I've ever tried.
-- 

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