Amber Smalltalk 0.10 released | Hacker News Reader

Amber Smalltalk 0.10 released

amber-lang.net

51 pointsbromagosa15 comments

Totally awesome!

Some time ago there was a Smalltalk for Java announced - I wasn't particularly thrilled, because I have nothing to do with Java. This time, however, I'm more than excited - I'm starting to play with Amber right now!

EDIT: this is getting better with every page I read. It's compiled to JS, so I expect it to be fast. It supports seamless integration with JS libraries - it's IDE is written in Amber but with jQuery. It's class library is simplified, but based on Pharo. It has a Canvas implementation - and I don't mean <canvas>, but a HTMLCanvas known from Seaside. It's a live, interactive, clean Smalltalk environment in a browser.

My life just got a bit better and more enjoyable :)

That was Redline Smalltalk, which they've also pushing quite a bit. Their indiegogo campaign managed to raise 17.000$ so that the core dev can work full time for a while on the project.

I had two problems with Redline: if I remember correctly it's supposed to be file- instead of image-based. I'm not very optimistic about that, but maybe it will be alright - I sure hope so. The second thing is that JVM is not exactly my favorite environment.

However, every effort for bringing Smalltalk back to life - or rather back to mainstream - is praiseworthy and I'm very glad such effort are undertaken.

> I had two problems with Redline: if I remember correctly it's supposed to be file- instead of image-based. I'm not very optimistic about that, but maybe it will be alright

There's precedents for file-based Smalltalks. Basically, don't ##ck with your source files manually, and use VCS. Problem (pretty much) solved.

Image basedness, and the IDE microcosm in general is the single reason why I dislike Smalltalk, which is otherwise a very cool and well thought out language.

A sentence I never though I'd see 10 (or even 5) years ago: "It's compiled to JS, so I expect it to be fast."

Haha :) I was thinking "fast in comparison with a Smalltalk virtual machine implemented in JS" - but you're right in that JS got ridiculously fast compared to how it was a few years back.

Even today, I never thought I'd see that sentence. Speed is relative, I suppose.

Some example code snippets on the front page couldn't hurt, and please, please have a downloadable ebook or pdf of your documentation, so I can sit back with my tablet / e-reader in non-connected situations. Doing a little bit of targeting to iOS developers given Objective-C's ancestry couldn't hurt.

[edit: Objective-C is a decedent of Smalltalk - I was emphasizing the connection to be able to draw Objective-C programmers to its roots]

> given Objective-C's ancestry

Wait, what? You mean that Smalltalk is a descendant of Obj-C? That's... interesting... [EDIT: ok, I misread the parent statement, my bad.]

> Some example code snippets on the front page couldn't hurt

You have a whole system source right there before your eyes. Click on "try in browser" button, then select a package in the left-most pane, then a class name in second pane and then method name in rightmost pane. Voila, what you're reading now is a Smalltalk source for this method.

I believe, and hope, he meant the opposite :)

Yes, I meant the opposite and looking at it am not real sure how someone would turn that around.

No, no, no - Objective-C is a descendent of Smalltalk. If you use Objective-C, Smalltalk won't look quite so weird.

[edit] Why would I bother to download it and explore with so much else going on? Give me a feel and tell me why. You can get lost in a Smalltalk IDE fairly quickly.

I'm not sure if you're trolling, but I'm sure Op meant obj-c is inspired by Smalltalk, not the other way around...

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.25/25.07/2507Roa...

That is very cool. I played with Amber a few years ago and it seems like the in-browser experience is better.

Off topic, but I just had some pain moving a small example Ember.js app to the most recent 1.0rc1, with lots of pain. I have to at least consider that Amber might be good for writing a fat browser client.

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