From: Ron Jeffries Date: 2006-07-06T23:54:59+09:00 Subject: Re: Why is there no Smalltalk-like IDE for Ruby? On 5 Jul 2006 15:11:16 -0700, hanumizzle@gmail.com wrote: >Friedrich Dominicus wrote: >> "joe" writes: >> >> > Hi all -- >> > >> > I shout my question to the entire Ruby + Smalltalk community: Smalltalk >> > has had amazing IDEs for decades, why not Ruby? Smalltalkers, Ruby >> > needs your help! >> Are you willing to pay for it? > >There is no such thing as free, so the distinction between paying and >not paying does not exist. With FOSS, the price is community effort, >including effort by the user. There's an issue that I think is more significant, which is that Smalltalk's model is that all the classes and objects are there, all the time, in the image. Ruby's model is that the classes are NOT there, but are brought in (via require) only when the need is explicitly expressed in the source code. As such, a Smalltalk-style experience is very difficult to produce. Chet Hendrickson and I tried, and while we're not the best in the world, we're good enough to be sure it's difficult. I'd love to see someone do it, but it's not going to be easy, in my opinion. -- Ron Jeffries www.XProgramming.com I'm giving the best advice I have. You get to decide if it's true for you.