Rereading the Classics (Beautiful Architecture - Chapter 14)

We have finally blasted our way through the Beautiful Architecture book with the final chapter on Smalltalk and architecture. Like some of my classmates, I learned about and had hands-on experience with Smalltalk in Ralph Johnson's CS598RJ class at UIUC. I highly recommend the class to anyone wanting to experience a fully object-oriented language (and needing another 500-level credit).

As with any new language, using Smalltalk for the first time is a bit overwhelming. You have new syntax, new commands, and a new GUI (if using Squeak). "Modern-day" programming languages such as Java, Python, and Ruby have been influenced by concepts from Smalltalk. It is unfortunate Smalltalk is not more popular among developers. I would be interested in seeing a mainstream software application developed in Smalltalk. I am not aware of a significant software package written solely in Smalltalk.

I would like to give a kudos to @JLSjr for his latest blog entry. Well stated!

You always want to jump to the end of a book to see how it ends. Even though it is not a suspense novel, the last line of the book sums it up nicely:

Architecture is a chaotic adventure because beautiful architecture alone is not enough; not only beauty, but also usefulness, is the law for architecture and programming alike.