Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
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From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Subject: Re: Price of Smalltalk
Message-ID: <tcmayD1LEn5.JE0@netcom.com>
Organization: Cypherpunks
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References: <3dqt96$7aj@sundog.tiac.net> <3dr01j$f74@nkosi.well.com> <DJOHNSON.94Dec29131608@seuss.ucsd.edu>
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 1994 22:04:16 GMT
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Darin Johnson (djohnson@seuss.ucsd.edu) wrote:

: The other point is that an individual can't afford Smalltalk, and
: thus can't learn Smalltalk and get experience.  (that's being naive

This isn't true, as I see things. I'm an individual and I can afford
Smalltalk.

A few years ago I got Digitalk's Smalltalk/V for the Mac for $130,
played around with it to learn the basics of Smalltalk, etc.

Recently I bought SmalltalkAgents from QKS for my PowerMac. A total of
$500, for CD-ROMs, manuals, support, discussion, etc. (I've written
recently about this, so I won't here.) (The STA I have is not "native"
to the PPC, but runs acceptably fast in PPC emulation mode; a native
version is due soon, for about a $100 upgrade fee.)

Now $500 isn't pocket change, but it's similar in price to CodeWarrior
or any of the other major language products. No, it's not free, or
shareware, or Borland's $49 TurboPascal of 10 years ago. But it's a
whole lot more than those products ever offered. About the cost of a
piece of stereo equipment, or a 35mm camera, or other "hobby"
purchases.

So, a powerful Smalltalk environment is in fact affordable by
individual consumers. (And I haven't even mentioned even lower-priced
"Lite" versions that QKS is planning.)

My thrust here is on the Macintosh, to refute the point about
affordability. What other platforms have available is for others to
write about. And of course QKS plans Windows and Unix versions of STA.

--Tim May

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