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25 - DISTRIBUTED SMALLTALK

Object Magazine, February, 1994

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

Kent Beck
Affiliation:
First Class Software, Inc.
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Summary

Yet another brutal review. I never write a tough review without questioning myself: “Is it just me? Am I just not smart enough to get this product? Who am I to tell someone else what to do?”

I am just now getting comfortable with writing what I know and trusting my readers to take what I say and add their perspective and experience to it.

Should you be using Distributed Smalltalk? That is the question I'll address here. This isn't a full-blown product review, nor a technical piece. I'll introduce the history and technical background of Distributed Smalltalk as they apply to the question of who should be using it.

First, what is Distributed Smalltalk? It is a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA)-compliant extension to ParcPlace System's Visual-Works developed and marketed by Hewlett-Packard. “HP? The hardware company? Those C++ guys?”

My first reaction when I saw that HP had done a Smalltalk product was, “What does HP know about Smalltalk?” The answer to this question is twofold. One answer is “a lot.” HP has been involved peripherally in Smalltalk since it first escaped Xerox. They were one of the first four companies to write a virtual machine. They have also had pockets of interest in Smalltalk ever since. Their 700 series of workstations has held the title for fastest Smalltalk for several years.

Type
Chapter
Information
Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk
A Sorted Collection
, pp. 235 - 238
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1997

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  • DISTRIBUTED SMALLTALK
  • Kent Beck, First Class Software, Inc.
  • Book: Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511574979.028
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  • DISTRIBUTED SMALLTALK
  • Kent Beck, First Class Software, Inc.
  • Book: Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511574979.028
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • DISTRIBUTED SMALLTALK
  • Kent Beck, First Class Software, Inc.
  • Book: Kent Beck's Guide to Better Smalltalk
  • Online publication: 04 August 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511574979.028
Available formats
×