--- title: "Is SmallTalk a real option?" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/20/is-smalltalk-a-real-option.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/20/is-smalltalk-a-real-option.html" published: "2004-01-20T06:16:00" updated: "2004-01-20T06:16:00" tags: [".Net Original"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "There's a nice little back and forth developing over at Cincom Smalltalk blog (Yes, it is a smalltalk'ish blog): Over on QLOD , a new Smalltalker asks: \"What makes me wonder though: Are Smalltalkers really that much…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # Is SmallTalk a real option? By Roy Osherove January 20, 2004 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) **Historical article** · Originally published January 20, 2004; technical details may be outdated. There's a nice little back and forth developing over at [Cincom Smalltalk blog](http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&entry=3251962523) (Yes, it is a smalltalk'ish blog):

Over on QLOD, a new Smalltalker asks:

"What makes me wonder though: Are Smalltalkers really that much more productive. In contrast to C or C with a bad IDE and without libraries maybe, but in contrast to a more modern language ? (Think about something like AS1 with additional runtime typechecking and a big library like java, probably a bad example :)) Can anyone provide some pointers ? "

A large part of the productivity comes from consistency. In Smalltalk, everything is an object. No primitive data types, no special rules on certain types of methods - which means you spend more time focused on the actual problem, instead of on how to fight the system to allow you to solve the problem. Another big thing is extensibility. We can extend any class in Smalltalk - need a new method in String? Go ahead and add it. No need to start wrapping all your string references with a new class, and wondering how to get third party libraries to play ball. Blocks add some capabilities that neither Java nor any CLR language have as well. Anyone else have answers?

(You'd do well to read some of the comments on that post and also [this post](http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&entry=3252012426) for more reasons) I've tried Smalltalk before and had problems with it. The main problem was that I didn't "get" it. As a developer, I'm always looking for ways to be productive. f someone says to me that SmallTalk is more productive that my current .Net infatuation, I'll believe it. Provided proof of course. There are many good reasons over there why SmallTalk is more productive, but what happens when you move it into the enterprise application space? How well does it cope with creating web services? using distributed solutions? talking to other applications? integration? Maintenance? How widespread is it? If I learn SmallTalk, will I be able to get a job in it? will I be able to leverage my current skills in .Net using SmallTalk, or just write some of my business logic in it while the other parts using a .Net language? (Isn't there a SmallTalk.Net out there?) ## More in .Net Original [All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) - Jan 22, 2004 ### [Israel DevDays](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/22/israel-devdays.html) - Jan 22, 2004 ### [Convert a DataReader into a DataSet](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/22/convert-a-datareader-into-a-dataset.html) - Jan 17, 2004 ### [Learning from mistakes: the Don Quixote pattern](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/learning-from-mistakes-the-don-quixote-pattern-1.html) - Jan 17, 2004 ### [Using SOA on existing N-tier applications](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/using-soa-on-existing-n-tier-applications.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/