Smalltalk and Python

[Alex Martelli]

"Russell E. Owen" <owen at astroNOJNK.washington.edu.invalid> wrote in message
news:91bhlh$c64u$1 at nntp6.u.washington.edu...
    [snip]
> Smalltalk is my favorite language. However, I am the only one at the
> observatory who knows it and feels it is worthwhile. As I fight Python's
> disgusting GUI I keep wavering, and I may yet give up and switch to

Which one of Python's many available GUIs do you find disgusting?  Me,
I like wxPython, and HTML-based interfaces, but I realize Tkinter's
more widespread -- and there are just SO many others that, if I was
GUI-oriented at all, I'd be in a tizzy about trying them all (but I'm
more of a command line oriented dinosaur, so...).  Or, do you mean
IDE?  As in, IDLE vs BoaConstrictor vs etc etc?  For the latter,
ActiveState is in the early stages of developing IDE's (for Python,
Perl, and XSLT) based on VisualStudio .NET, and others (same
langugaes) based on Kommodo (open-source, cross-platform).  The
Python Refactoring Browser, aka 'bicycle repair-man', may also be
worth exploring, assuming you share the 'refactoring culture' which
seems to be part of Smalltalk (and works so well with Python too);
it currently lives on sourceforge.

None of this will change the _language_, so, if Smalltalk is what
you truly hanker for, I would suggest you seriously consider using
it instead!  It *is* a great language.  But I'm somewhat surprised
of seeing 'the' (singular?) 'GUI' of Python rubbished and considered a
key reason to give up on the language, when you get so much choice
of GUI's (and IDE's) to go with it.


Alex