On Smalltalk

This blog is a journal of my experiences with Smalltalk and Seaside. I’m a .Net developer, experienced with C#, and Visual Basic. I got into programming around 2000, while helping a buddy of mine with a homework assignment he’d been given using Microsoft’s Active Server Pages. I’ve been doing web development professionally ever since, but I was very much entrenched in the Microsoft world of programming.

I’ve been programming in Smalltalk as a hobby for a few years now, and finally decided to change jobs so I could program in Smalltalk professionally, .Net just can’t compete for me anymore. Since I picked up Smalltalk, I’ve also begun learning things from the other side of the tracks, the Linux world. I’m now a big fan not so much of Linux, as the Linux mindset, lot’s of little tools that can be assembled into a working solution.

I use Apache, Squeak, Linux, and Cygwin for much of my work these days, and freely mix and match whatever tools are best suited to solve a problem, be it from Microsoft, or not. I’ve become a very big fan of open source software and feel much more confident using OSS solutions than anything else these days. I’ve gained a huge sense of freedom from OSS tools that I’ve never felt using Microsoft tools. No longer am I stuck waiting for the next big thing, I’m now using it as it evolves daily.

I’ve become a big fan of the Seaside and Scriptaculous frameworks and use them daily. I plan to write about anything I find interesting in my work on this blog, which will serve both to reinforce my own experiences and as a place to document some of my knowledge for my own future needs.

– Ramon Leon