https://github.com/hernanmd/falsehoods_smalltalk

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Smalltalk
https://github.com/hernanmd/falsehoods_smalltalk

Last synced: 5 months ago
JSON representation

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Smalltalk

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/hernanmd/falsehoods_smalltalk
• Owner: hernanmd
• License: mit
• Created: 2019-01-20T22:12:25.000Z (over 7 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2019-02-03T19:55:59.000Z (over 7 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-09-13T01:37:21.252Z (10 months ago)
• Size: 11.7 KB
• Stars: 5
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

          
# Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Smalltalk based technologies

> Falsehood articles are a form of commentary on a particular subject, and are appreciated by the developer community at large for their effectiveness and terseness. They’re a convenient written form to approach an unfamiliar domain by dispelling myths, point out common pitfalls, show inconsistencies and subtleties.

> In a sense, Falsehood articles are a suite of wordy unit-tests covering extensive edge-cases provided by real-world usage.

# General Myths

  - Smalltalk is obsolete.

  - Smalltalk is a programming language.

  - It doesn't work for real-world development.

  - All Smalltalk flavors are image-based.

  - A Smalltalk Image cannot be bootstrapped.

  - All Smalltalks includes UI classes.

  - All implementations uses green threads.

  - Smalltalk is not used in Big Data Science.

  - You cannot use Smalltalk from command line.

  - There are few libraries in the ecosystem.

  - Most implementations do not support Full Closures.

  - Most implementations do not support executable generation.

  - There are no implementations supporting native widgets.

  

# Reflection Myths

  

  - Metaclasses are necessary to have a working Smalltalk.

  - ClassDescription is necessary.

  - Behavior is necessary.

  - Subclassing Behavior has no use. 

  - You cannot add hidden behavior to a method.

  - You can add it, but you need to recompile the method.

  - It is impossible to avoid a hierarchy recompilation when an instance variable is added to a class.

# VM Myths

  - All Smalltalk bytecode sets are stack-based VM.

  - All VM implementations uses bytecodes.

# GC & Efficency Myths

  - Smalltalk is less efficient than "low-level" languages.

  - Smalltalk can't do "real time."

  - Garbage collection is less efficient than manual memory management.

  - Garbage collection is really slow if you use complex data structures.

# Acknowledgements

- Eliot Miranda

- Jecel Assumpcao Jr.

- Reinout Heeck

- Stephen Pope

- Hernán Morales Durand