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Subject: RE: Form about the next plateform
From: Becu Nicolas (nicolas_becu@yahoo.com)
Date: mar oct 16 2001 - 12:01:19 CEST
I agree about the two different kind of Cormas users
but I would define them in a different way
1/ Those who are interested in building simple models
in a short period of time and who are already familiar
with Small Talk programming. In that case, I think
it’s better to keep Cormas in ST : first because it’s
easy to learn and to program, and second because the
actual users (who are, most of them “non
computer-specialists") will not loose all their ST
knowledge.
2/ On a second hand I think some users are interested
by building bigger models, more complex one. In that
case shifting to JAVA could be interesting. We could
benefit from some features already available in JAVA
like linkage to different kind of tools. We could also
benefit from all the small JAVA programs that are
available on the web, like different kind of graphic
interface that we could incorporate in our models etc…
I see the advantage of JAVA more in terms of things
that we could pick up on the web or elsewhere then in
terms of programming power.
Now, I heard, or may be I’ve dreamed it, that it would
be possible to have both ST and JAVA, in a same Cormas
plateform. In that case both kind of users would be
satisfied.
If this is possible, I would suggest that the Cormas
training remain in ST (I think it’s easier to learn
then JAVA), or at least for a while. In some future
version we could then think of shifting all the
platform to JAVA. That will give time to the Cormas
community to adapt themselves to JAVA (if it’s
relevant and adapted to small and quick model
programming).
In conclusion, I think we should make a smooth
transition to JAVA and let time to the actual users to
experience JAVA and decide if it’s suitable or not to
their modelisation work.
Cheers,
Nicolas
--- "Jourdain, Damien" <D.JOURDAIN@CGIAR.ORG> a
écrit : > 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
=====
Nicolas BECU
Res. Eden Park 2F, 833 Ch. des Combes
06600 Antibes - France
Tel: 06 19 89 36 91
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