Ajax Smalltalk

Is this the Wiki Wiki Talk Page?

Dabble Db inspired me to review Seaside Framework once again. Like anyone who gives it more than a glance, I like it a lot - it would be a Ruby On Rails killer if it could scale.

But continuations are too memory-expensive to put in the server.

Which got me to thinking, why not put 'em in the client? You'd need a good language there though ... and if Seaside Framework is your aim how about Ajax Smalltalk? Smalltalk interpreters are tiny, right? Writing one in Java Script, you've already got most of the basics taken care of. There's already Js Lisp and Js Scheme as examples of adaptation idioms. Spoon Smalltalk is probably overkill. Then:

You'd want to bridge Ajax Smalltalk to the Document Object Model and the JS APIs so you could leverage all the Script Aculous goodness modern Ajax Web Applications do.

Smalltalk objects would only run in the client-side interpreter.

You'd Xml Http Request to pull clean ST objects from your server and push dirty ones back again.

This would provide the ability to move the Seaside Framework semantics directly into the client, where they can scale however you like.

Never write another line of anything but Smalltalk so long as you live.

I have resisted learning Smalltalk properly for years. But Ruby Language has seduced me and this seems to be a readily realizable step toward a real Symphonic Architecture. My first question is, why hasn't some bright young smalltalker already done this? Given the enablement of Web Three Point Zero, I guess my next question is, who wants to help out? -- Peter Merel

If the control is in the client, do you even *need* continuations. You're back to the good old rich client, stateless server architecture that we all learned during the early 90s.

Yes. For Control Flow, Work Flow and for versioning maybe. Some of these can be done with good old Lexical Closures. But as for the impact of Wp Fe, yes, Everything Old Is New Again.


Ah, Pete, always behind the times, will you never catch up? Vista Smalltalk is already doing all this ... but without the javascript. See, the way of the future (this week ...) is Xa Ml. You're not going to have a really rich user experience with that old JS/CSS crap, are you?

Now Pete, simmer down, I'm doing my best to catch up. It's not easy living in the Wiki Now you know ...


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