[Oz] Oz vs. Squeak

[Peter Van Roy]

> As a corporate prisoner to the Windows operating system, I do find Emacs
> conceptually interesting but not very productive as a development
> environment. When you're used to Windows apps, Emacs' paradigm is a bit
> disorienting. Plus, its windows implementation is pretty clunky. You can
> always tell when Unix folks port programs to Windows that they have a
> certain disdain for it, and that shows in the end product. 

Actually, it's not so much disdain as lack of manpower.  E.g., I have the
idea for a Mac port in the backburner, but it's on hold waiting for the
right tools to appear in Mac OS X (graphics).

> For Windows at
> all events, I'm willing to build an IDE with all the bells and whistles that
> developers on Windows are used to. While it wouldn't be cross platform as an
> IDE, it would certainly highlight the strengths of Oz and minimize the
> Unix-y aspects of Emacs that would turn a lot of Windows developers off. I
> can also work on integrating Oz with COM and COM+, and eventually maybe even
> .NET. I'd probably build the IDE in Delphi or C++ Builder, both of which are
> being ported by Borland to Linux. They'll include a cross platform GUI
> library, CLX, which means the code would compile as written on both
> platforms, but for the time being the first Windows version of the IDE can
> be a straight Windows implementation. I of course would provide the IDE free
> with source for those who want it, and I can maintain a little "Windows"
> corner of the website.

That is absolutely great news and you're very welcome to do this.

> BUT I need to get more familiar with Oz first (something I am determined to
> do because I think it is a VERY promising language for longer term projects
> I'm involved in)... and I'm in the middle of a development effort now that's
> very intense, AND I'm (supposed to be) writing a book for Macmillan
> Technical Publishing on Automated Software Testing... so give me some time
> to get started.... any encouragement would be helpful in getting started
> "sooner rather than later" though I get the feeling that I'm addressing a
> crowd that's not exactly Windows-friendly... ;)

> Someday, I'd like to be the "Wizard of Oz" on Windows... for what it's
> worth. For an analogy, consider the work of Mark Hammond in the Python
> (www.python.org) community. He works for ActiveState (www.activestate.com)
> and is primarily responsible for extending Python on Windows to do things
> like COM, ISAPI integration, and so on.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Bob Calco
> Centreville, Virginia, USA
> rcalco at cortechs.com

I'm pretty sure the other developers will agree with me to
help you as much as we can, within our own time & knowledge
constraints.

Peter Van Roy

-
Please send submissions to users at mozart-oz.org
and administriva mail to users-request at mozart-oz.org.
The Mozart Oz web site is at http://www.mozart-oz.org/.