Which smalltalk (tool) to use?

I am currently using the free version of VisualWorks. Why? Well there are some points:

1. VisualWorks takes less ressources from CPU than Squeak
2. VW allows me to  reduce the size of the Workspace and other windows.
3. They have some nice video tutorials and a good online help.
4. The system browser has some nice additional functions like filling in initialize. (I am quite sure that I could do this also with Squeak, but it did not show up by default like in VW)

So I think right now VisualWorks is the best choice for me to learn Smalltalk. I continue to be interested in other solutions and whould switch to an open source solutions that could do the same things. But I also do know that switching from one Smalltalk to the other is not that hard. There are some differences but that just like different Linux distributions. Most Smalltalker that I have met use many different versions at the same time. The other thing thats not so nice about VisualWorks is that it looks very outdated in its Linux version. I guess this must be Tcl/Tk? Would be nicer to see a more modern look like newer Qt or Gtk2 give the user. The fonts are also often not nice to look at, which influences the overall reception of an application. So I like to suggest to Cincom to do some rework of the GUI (not the logic, only the Toolkit)

Syx – and here we go again.

Those who follow that blog know that I am currently learning smalltalk while I build some more Smalltalk conary packages. I now have recently found yet another smalltalk version which looks promising. The long name is Smalltalk YX (or short: Syx). I am not knowledgeable enough to evaluate how good the code is but the project and the core maintainer look very active and full of energy and ideas. So I think it could have some great future.I think if Smalltalk should have a future it needs fresh ideas – even if not all ideas will become true. So for those Conary, rPath and Foresight users who like to test Syx can do so. It is yet not official part of Foresight contrib but will soon be if all is ok: sudo conary update syx=vincis.rpath.org@fl:1-contrib (thats a subversion pre-version of 0.1.4). Have fun!