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Subject: RE: Form about the next plateform
From: Jourdain, Damien (D.JOURDAIN@CGIAR.ORG)
Date: ven oct 12 2001 - 18:08:15 CEST
Hi there.
Given the discussion going on the future CORMAS II platform... it is clear
that the platform has two different kind of "clients"...
Those, "non computer-specialists" (like me), who enjoy smalltalk for its
simplicity, and are not very keen on changing for something scary like Java
(I'm not even thinking of C++)
and
Those, "computer-specialists", who might see in Smalltalk something like a
"retrograde" program, and want to go all the way to more mainstream
languages (with large communities of users, and therefore better product
support (for the language I mean, cause I have nothing bad to say about
CORMAS support) , and better interconnection with other applications ...).
The question is:
Is it possible to reconciliate those two worlds?
Or are we talking of two different products, for two different communities
in the future...
Having said that, could the newer versions of Smalltalk (5i?) be a
compromise? i.e. with newer features and better interconnections with recent
applications without having to go through a new language training?
Let's remember the initial purpose of CORMAS (at least the one I
understood), user friendly platform so that computer-illiterates can have
access to the world of MAS. (cf. Stanislas' message).
Finally, if speed if something important and diversion something less
important, I would suggest having the possibility to disable, when
necessary, the graphical interface.
Cheers,
Damien