[scona] VSE migration or upgrade

[Martin McClure]

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On 10/26/2011 06:36 AM, Chantal Thibodeau wrote:
> Hi
> 
> We are a business with about 15 years of development, part in Smalltalk, 
> part in Java.  The old stuff was done in Smalltalk and all the new stuff is 
> done in Java.  But we still have large portion of code maintained and 
> improved in Smalltalk.  Be we have the limit of it 16 bits: 4 go max file 
> size, 1 go of allocated RAM memory... 
> 
> We are thinking of migrating all this Smallalk code to Java or migrating it 
> to a new version of Smalltalk (wich I prefer because i love so much that 
> language).
> 
> Do you have any recommendations about GNU, Squeak, Pharo, Cincom (we 
> previously upgraded a bit to VisualWorks 3.0 but I didn't love it) ?
> 

Hi Chantal,

I'd definitely recommend replacing the old Smalltalk code with newer
Smalltalk; it will be considerably less work than porting to Java, and
will be more flexible in the future.

All of the current Smalltalks you list will allow 32-bit operation; and
some allow 64-bit if you need it. Which Smalltalk you choose depends on
several factors. Is this a GUI application? The GUI framework is the
thing that is the most different between the Smalltalks, so if it's a
GUI application choose the one with a GUI framework that best meets your
needs. Porting any GUI code will take the most time.

VisualWorks 3.0 is, at this point, almost 15 years old. The current
VisualWorks (7.8) is much better, though the GUI framework hasn't
changed in its fundamental structure. Cincom tries to have the best
programming tools, and probably succeeds overall, though the others have
some nice individual features that are better. VisualWorks is
commercial, so costs money but you get support, while Squeak, Pharo, and
GNU are open source. Squeak and Pharo are fairly close to each other in
features and stability, both are quite nice. I haven't personally used
GNU Smalltalk, but have been hearing good things about it in the last
couple of years. Another commercial offering you could consider is VA
Smalltalk, originally developed by IBM but now developed by and
available from Instantiations. If the application doesn't have a GUI
component and you have any need for object persistence, then GemStone/S
is the way to go.

Regards,

- -Martin
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