Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!usfvax2!pdn!ken
From: ken@pdn.UUCP (Ken Auer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Smalltalk for a PC
Summary: Good, but not Smalltalk-80
Keywords: smalltalk, IBM, PC
Message-ID: <1904@pdn.UUCP>
Date: 15 Dec 87 15:56:15 GMT
References: <4204@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Paradyne Corporation, Largo, Florida
Lines: 69

In article <4204@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>, igibson@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Ian L. Gibson - Earth Sciences) writes:
> I have seen the ads for Digitalk's Smalltalk V for the IBM PC.
> Has anyone used this system?
> 
> What is the performance like? How useable is it on an AT? What
> type of equipment is needed to make the system usable? 
> 
> Any experiences with this product would be appreciated.

To which bae@ati.tis.llnl.gov (Hwa Jin Bae) responds:

>> By all means, go out and buy it!  It is fantastic system.  Very fast
>> reponse time on my 10 Mhz 0 wait state AT clone.  The Smalltalk/V
>> comes with an implementation of Prolog (with smalltalk source!)
>> which works within smalltalk environment.  Prolog predicates can
>> be sent to prolog object instance as messages....how's that for
>> an idea?
>> 
>> The manual contains very nice tutorial on smalltalk language itself -
>> comparing smalltalk to pascal syntax...

This, and similar questions, have appeared on the net several times.

The Digitalk 'Smalltalk/V' is a very good product.  In fact, I'll agree
with Hwa Jin that it is a "fantastic system".  If all you want is a
"fantastic system" for a low price, I agree with his recommendation to
go out and but it.  Smalltalk/V performs very well on an AT and is
syntactically the same (except it uses := instead of a left arrow) as
Smalltalk-80.  Some of its performance is due to the fact that it
handles text in a much simpler manner than Smalltalk-80 does (which
could be good or bad, depending on your point of view).  Smalltalk/V
also provides a lot of nifty things like Prolog in their package.  

I also understand Digitalk will have a Mac version and an 80386 version 
(which MAY get rid of a lot of annoying side effects of running in "real-mode" 
on an 80286 and having to deal with segmentation in the Intel world,
although I'm not sure exactly what their platform is), both 
with awesome performance, in early '88.

However, if you want "Real Smalltalk-80", Softsmarts Smalltalk-AT is the
way to go.  Its performance is not as good in certain areas (e.g.
text-handling) due to the fact that it is real Smalltalk-80 with all of
the power/functionality.  I've also seen benchmarks which indicate its
performance is better in some areas.  It also costs a bit more due to
their licensing agreements with XEROX (or ParcPlace, whichever actually
owns Smalltalk-80 now).  Smalltalk-AT supplies a more powerful development 
environment, in my opinion, especially when comparing the debugging 
capabilities.  

Before I start a holy war, let me simply state that there are many other 
differences between the two products.  I'm sure each vendor can prove
why it's better for you to buy their product.  Its up to you to decide
which is better for you -- I just wanted to give equal time to Softsmarts.
Since they don't seem to advertise as much as Digitalk, their address is
below:

		Softsmarts, Inc.
		299 California Ave.
		Suite 205
		Palo Alto, CA 94303

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Ken Auer					Paradyne Corporation
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