Dolphin Smalltalk News - Smalltalk

Congratulations, Andy!!!

Will it have Seaside and OODB (like Gemstone) compatibility?

Víctor

========================================

"Andy Bower" <bower@SnipThisObject-arts.com> wrote in message
news:6k1gp2F5fp2bU1@mid.individual.net...
> Folks,
>
> Object Arts are pleased to announce that over the last few months we have
> entered into a partnership with Lesser Software (www.lesser-software.com)
> with the aim of creating the Next Generation of Dolphin Smalltalk. This
> new version of Dolphin will be targetted towards professional software
> developers and will leverage the experience that Lesser Software have
> built up over a number of years in high performance Smalltalk virtual
> machines and development tools.
>
> Lesser Software's current product set includes LSW Vision Smalltalk, whose
> virtual machine retains full bytecode compatibility with the original
> Digitalk Visual Smalltalk Enterprise (VSE) platform. Existing VSE
> developers can migrate their codebase to Vision Smalltalk, usually within
> minutes, gaining the ability to run their applications on a fast, modern
> and fully supported virtual machine.
>
> Similarly, as a result of the new agreement, Dolphin users will have
> access to the full Dolphin development environment and class library
> (including MVP) running on top of the Vision Smalltalk substrate. The new
> system will be completely source code (rather than bytecode) compatible
> with existing Dolphin Smalltalk X6 projects, so adopters of the new
> platform will instantly gain a number of key benefits:
>
> 1) Speed. The Vision VM is Just-In-Time (JIT) compiled and is FAST. The
> current Dolphin VM is based on a very fast interpreter. In some
> circumstances this has advantages over JIT compilation but if you want
> SPEED then JIT is the way to go. Early estimates indicate that the new
> Dolphin will be between 2x and 5x faster than Dolphin Professional X6.
>
> 2) Multi-threading. Currently, the Dolphin VM is single threaded (although
> with an ability to run external calls on separate threads). The Vision
> Smalltalk VM is true multi-threaded which will allow Dolphin applications
> to take full advantage of the modern generation of multi-processor and
> multi-core machines.
>
> 3) Unicode Support. Internally, the new VM is entirely based on Unicode.
> For many of our international customers the ability to use Unicode in
> their applications will be a huge benefit.
>
> 4) Smalltalk Link Libraries (SLLs). In the same way that Digitalk
> Smalltalk introduced the concept of SLLs, the Vision Smalltalk platform
> also allows Smalltalk code to be distributed as collections of small,
> pre-compiled units that in many ways are simailar to Windows DLLs. Dolphin
> Smalltalk users will be able to deploy their applications either as SLLs
> or fully bound into executable files as they are today.
>
> 5) 64 bit OS Support. Whilst the current Vision Smalltalk VM is 32 bit,
> development is underway on a full 64 bit version. Once this is ready, new
> Dolphin users will be able to benefit from this immediately with no
> additional effort.
>
> 6) Maintenance and Support. The Vision Smalltalk platform is fully
> supported and is being actively developed by Lesser Software. With this
> new way forward both existing and new Dolphin developers can be sure of a
> supported route into the future.
>
> At present, no pricing structure has been set for the new platform.
> However, following its release we still intend to continue to keep the
> current Dolphin products (DPRO and DCE) in existence. Hence, the Next
> Generation Dolphin environment will likely be positioned at a price point
> above that of the existing Dolphin Professional product.
>
> If you are excited as we are about the potential behind this announcement
> you'll probably want to learn more about when development will commence on
> the Next Generation product. If so please follow this link to Dolphin NG
> Development:
>
> http://www.object-arts.com/content/n...ducts/dng.html
>
> Best regards
>
> Andy Bower
> Object Arts Ltd

> Will it have Seaside and OODB (like Gemstone) compatibility?

Seaside and OmniBase already run on Dolphin

New version of Dolphin is source-compatible, so I'd say that both Seaside
and OmniBase will work just fine

This is great news, for the Smalltalk community.

I for one am looking forward to get back
to working on Dolphin and to help develop
the platform further.

VSE was always my favorite implementation, so far.

I hope that everyone involved in the Smalltalk
community will support this effort, and help
maximize the inter-operability of this new
implementaitons with the existing platforms.

I would urge ObjectArts & Lessing Software
not to simply try to cash in on the latest
tide of Smalltalk-interest, but to try to
provide a platform that can unite the community
and can evolve into the future by means of a
community-supported effort. I believe it is
the only way Smalltalk can thrive.

I think everybody has by now learned the
lessons of the past: No single provider of
programming IDEs nor VMs can help to corner
the marker on their own. Not even Sun. We need
collaboration.


Thanks for these great new developments.
Don't hesitate to invite the community
to collaborate and help you, to build up
momentum.

Best Regards

-Panu Viljamaa








Andy Bower wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Object Arts are pleased to announce that over the last few months we
> have entered into a partnership with Lesser Software
> (www.lesser-software.com) with the aim of creating the Next Generation
> of Dolphin Smalltalk. This new version of Dolphin will be targetted
> towards professional software developers and will leverage the
> experience that Lesser Software have built up over a number of years in
> high performance Smalltalk virtual machines and development tools.
>
> Lesser Software's current product set includes LSW Vision Smalltalk,
> whose virtual machine retains full bytecode compatibility with the
> original Digitalk Visual Smalltalk Enterprise (VSE) platform. Existing
> VSE developers can migrate their codebase to Vision Smalltalk, usually
> within minutes, gaining the ability to run their applications on a fast,
> modern and fully supported virtual machine.
>
> Similarly, as a result of the new agreement, Dolphin users will have
> access to the full Dolphin development environment and class library
> (including MVP) running on top of the Vision Smalltalk substrate. The
> new system will be completely source code (rather than bytecode)
> compatible with existing Dolphin Smalltalk X6 projects, so adopters of
> the new platform will instantly gain a number of key benefits:
>
> 1) Speed. The Vision VM is Just-In-Time (JIT) compiled and is FAST. The
> current Dolphin VM is based on a very fast interpreter. In some
> circumstances this has advantages over JIT compilation but if you want
> SPEED then JIT is the way to go. Early estimates indicate that the new
> Dolphin will be between 2x and 5x faster than Dolphin Professional X6.
>
> 2) Multi-threading. Currently, the Dolphin VM is single threaded
> (although with an ability to run external calls on separate threads).
> The Vision Smalltalk VM is true multi-threaded which will allow Dolphin
> applications to take full advantage of the modern generation of
> multi-processor and multi-core machines.
>
> 3) Unicode Support. Internally, the new VM is entirely based on Unicode.
> For many of our international customers the ability to use Unicode in
> their applications will be a huge benefit.
>
> 4) Smalltalk Link Libraries (SLLs). In the same way that Digitalk
> Smalltalk introduced the concept of SLLs, the Vision Smalltalk platform
> also allows Smalltalk code to be distributed as collections of small,
> pre-compiled units that in many ways are simailar to Windows DLLs.
> Dolphin Smalltalk users will be able to deploy their applications either
> as SLLs or fully bound into executable files as they are today.
>
> 5) 64 bit OS Support. Whilst the current Vision Smalltalk VM is 32 bit,
> development is underway on a full 64 bit version. Once this is ready,
> new Dolphin users will be able to benefit from this immediately with no
> additional effort.
>
> 6) Maintenance and Support. The Vision Smalltalk platform is fully
> supported and is being actively developed by Lesser Software. With this
> new way forward both existing and new Dolphin developers can be sure of
> a supported route into the future.
>
> At present, no pricing structure has been set for the new platform.
> However, following its release we still intend to continue to keep the
> current Dolphin products (DPRO and DCE) in existence. Hence, the Next
> Generation Dolphin environment will likely be positioned at a price
> point above that of the existing Dolphin Professional product.
>
> If you are excited as we are about the potential behind this
> announcement you'll probably want to learn more about when development
> will commence on the Next Generation product. If so please follow this
> link to Dolphin NG Development:
>
> http://www.object-arts.com/content/n...ducts/dng.html
>
> Best regards
>
> Andy Bower
> Object Arts Ltd