We're niche players
The Planet Smalltalk BLOG, which I
read daily, recently had a post from Michael Lucas-Smith that caught my
interest. In "10
years since Smalltalk died? right?" he referenced the BLOG entry
"Bambi
Meets Godzilla" by Steve Yegge. I read Steve's entry with interest.
My honest original gut reaction to the title was, no that was in 1997. After
reading the article I realized the actual date didn't matter and what he said
was that Java killed Smalltalk.
I probably have astigmatism when it comes to this event, but I think Java didn't kill Smalltalk. Smalltalk is not dead, as Michael points out. But Smalltalk developers have not become thought leaders, as was asserted. I think we've become niche. And we cannot blame Java. My memory of events during that time period goes something like this.
During that period of time I was a regional manager for ParcPlace-Digitalk's Professional Services. I was a "player-coach" in that I still earned my stripes by visiting customer sites and tackling some tough technical issues. From where I stood I could certainly see the amount of Smalltalk work that our company was doing. I think we had our fingers in everything; well represented in successful leading-edge commercial projects.
When I first became aware of Java was probably the same way other developers did. I first saw it being used in Netscape's web browser to run applets on web sites. That was really cool. Widgets that did stuff over the web hosted by the web browser. I remember two of the senior smalltalk consultants on my team started talking about how cool Java was and that they wanted to explore it. Java had that kind of technical appeal. It was natural for a developer to want to know more about it.
The context of this discussion must also include the "internet bubble". This was at the time when the internet was "hot". Flames were visible everywhere. WWW URLs could be seen on roadside billboards. Everyone, it seemed, was using a web browser. TV commercials featured web sites. That was an amazing time where the technology was in the public's face loud and clear.
And Java, was seen as a critical technical component by many. Here's where you have to give credit to Sun for marketing. I remember once reading that "Java will continue to be taught in universities 50 years from now. Not because of the technology but as a study in successful Marketing."
So was it Java's fault what happened to Smalltalk? Nope. Sure Java had the market's attention. But that internet bubble was really big, man. There was room for Smalltalk on there too and we had real-world-deployed experienced programmers to help. I think it wasn't all about Java and the great timing, luck and marketing. It was also the anti-marketing it felt like the Smalltalk leaders did. That's right. We did anti-marketing.
As I see it, the first major error happened before anyone ever really heard of Java. ParcPlace System merged with Digitalk. Now I loved both companies. I was employed by Digitalk at the time of the merger. And I had a lot of admiration for VisualWorks and ParcPlace Systems. When I heard the news about the merger it was shocking. That was a bold idea. Here were 2 of the 3 most visible Smalltalk companies on the planet pooling their resources together. Sounds like a great formula.
The reality was altogether different. Again, this is all from my own perspective and probably shows a lot of ignorance. And it's difficult for me to write about because it was such a big turning point in my own life. Also, I'd become close to a number of the original Digitalk founders and I have no interest in offending them when interpreting their roles in this. Instead of the genesis of a really cool company we became an example of what can happen when you merge 2 technology companies having polar opposite cultures. When mergers happen, there's always the power struggles and vacuum needing to be filled. I've experienced that 3 times now. But ParcPlace-Digitalk was struggling with this internal matter at a time when the internet bubble was expanding like a super-nova. And we had a marketing challenge for mind-share coming from Java. And to top that all off, I'll never forget how our own leadership became confused about our own core strengths and seemingly announced that "yea, we're doing Java too".
Everyone knows the rest of the story. The company self-destructed. Sold off a lot of technology. The best parts were rescued by CinCom and I am so grateful for that. People were leaving the organization in waves. I stayed until 1998 and I remember getting phone calls from friends asking me why I was still there. My motivation was simple. I really wanted ParcPlace to survive. Financial uncertainty and frustration with management led me to leave.
In this man's opinion, Java didn't kill Smalltalk. If anyone did, we did it to ourselves. Java just applied the heat while we were churning.
But now, the real point of this tirade. I agree, Smalltalk is not dead. Certainly die-hards like me have continued to use it in everyday work. I started using Squeak while still with ParcPlace in 1997. Before we had Morphic. Long live MVC! I love Squeak. And to this day I'm still paid to write Smalltalk code using VisualAge. And it's great work.
Smalltalk is not dead. But don't kid yourself. We've become niche. Actually, I kind of like part of the definition of niche. From Merriam-Webster On-Line, we read that niche means "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted". I like that part. It also says "a specialized market".
A simple Google search yields 16,200,000 hits for Smalltalk. Java yields 1,020,000,000. Okay, mind-share is smaller. What about where it really counts? What does DICE have to say about this? Smalltalk keyword matches on 43 job postings. Java gets 13,852.
Okay, so we're marginalized. A little. At least we're not a comodity. :) But what does a gross Google comparison show anyway? For example, when I used "piano" I got 223,000,000 hits and for "playstation" there were 210,000,000. Wow. I wonder if most piano players also have Playstations? Gee, I do. As an amusing aside, I own 3 piano-keyboards and 3 playstations. Wonder what that says? All kidding aside, I'm not so sure niche is a bad thing.
Revered automobiles are certainly in a small market share. How about home stereos? Everyone can think of niche audio systems. And no one I know thinks they are undeserved of an excellent reputation. Most people also know they don't need them. NIche. How about my favorite computer, Apple Macintosh? There's a niche market. But they seem to be gaining mind-set (hell, what other direction can they go?). Apple seems to be a strong healthy company. Maybe niche isn't so bad.
The real challenge is that I really do want to see Smalltalk get back what we lost. And more. Sure, we gave a lot up by stupidity. I'm perfectly happy to see Java remain strong, although there's evidence that it's peaking. The whole body of work out there that needs technologies like Smalltalk is substantial enough to give us plenty of room for success. And real financial growth. As much as I love the ideas, concepts and elegance of Smalltalk, it also needs to be there to support the financial model of employment. CinCom, and others, needs to be wildly successful. Companies adopting this technology as core need to be successful. Smalltalk success stories ought to be as legendary as the old Smalltalk -based semiconductor factory system that Sam Adams worked on.
From my point of view, Smalltalk isn't dead. But we're also not visible enough as leaders. We're currently niche.
I probably have astigmatism when it comes to this event, but I think Java didn't kill Smalltalk. Smalltalk is not dead, as Michael points out. But Smalltalk developers have not become thought leaders, as was asserted. I think we've become niche. And we cannot blame Java. My memory of events during that time period goes something like this.
During that period of time I was a regional manager for ParcPlace-Digitalk's Professional Services. I was a "player-coach" in that I still earned my stripes by visiting customer sites and tackling some tough technical issues. From where I stood I could certainly see the amount of Smalltalk work that our company was doing. I think we had our fingers in everything; well represented in successful leading-edge commercial projects.
When I first became aware of Java was probably the same way other developers did. I first saw it being used in Netscape's web browser to run applets on web sites. That was really cool. Widgets that did stuff over the web hosted by the web browser. I remember two of the senior smalltalk consultants on my team started talking about how cool Java was and that they wanted to explore it. Java had that kind of technical appeal. It was natural for a developer to want to know more about it.
The context of this discussion must also include the "internet bubble". This was at the time when the internet was "hot". Flames were visible everywhere. WWW URLs could be seen on roadside billboards. Everyone, it seemed, was using a web browser. TV commercials featured web sites. That was an amazing time where the technology was in the public's face loud and clear.
And Java, was seen as a critical technical component by many. Here's where you have to give credit to Sun for marketing. I remember once reading that "Java will continue to be taught in universities 50 years from now. Not because of the technology but as a study in successful Marketing."
So was it Java's fault what happened to Smalltalk? Nope. Sure Java had the market's attention. But that internet bubble was really big, man. There was room for Smalltalk on there too and we had real-world-deployed experienced programmers to help. I think it wasn't all about Java and the great timing, luck and marketing. It was also the anti-marketing it felt like the Smalltalk leaders did. That's right. We did anti-marketing.
As I see it, the first major error happened before anyone ever really heard of Java. ParcPlace System merged with Digitalk. Now I loved both companies. I was employed by Digitalk at the time of the merger. And I had a lot of admiration for VisualWorks and ParcPlace Systems. When I heard the news about the merger it was shocking. That was a bold idea. Here were 2 of the 3 most visible Smalltalk companies on the planet pooling their resources together. Sounds like a great formula.
The reality was altogether different. Again, this is all from my own perspective and probably shows a lot of ignorance. And it's difficult for me to write about because it was such a big turning point in my own life. Also, I'd become close to a number of the original Digitalk founders and I have no interest in offending them when interpreting their roles in this. Instead of the genesis of a really cool company we became an example of what can happen when you merge 2 technology companies having polar opposite cultures. When mergers happen, there's always the power struggles and vacuum needing to be filled. I've experienced that 3 times now. But ParcPlace-Digitalk was struggling with this internal matter at a time when the internet bubble was expanding like a super-nova. And we had a marketing challenge for mind-share coming from Java. And to top that all off, I'll never forget how our own leadership became confused about our own core strengths and seemingly announced that "yea, we're doing Java too".
Everyone knows the rest of the story. The company self-destructed. Sold off a lot of technology. The best parts were rescued by CinCom and I am so grateful for that. People were leaving the organization in waves. I stayed until 1998 and I remember getting phone calls from friends asking me why I was still there. My motivation was simple. I really wanted ParcPlace to survive. Financial uncertainty and frustration with management led me to leave.
In this man's opinion, Java didn't kill Smalltalk. If anyone did, we did it to ourselves. Java just applied the heat while we were churning.
But now, the real point of this tirade. I agree, Smalltalk is not dead. Certainly die-hards like me have continued to use it in everyday work. I started using Squeak while still with ParcPlace in 1997. Before we had Morphic. Long live MVC! I love Squeak. And to this day I'm still paid to write Smalltalk code using VisualAge. And it's great work.
Smalltalk is not dead. But don't kid yourself. We've become niche. Actually, I kind of like part of the definition of niche. From Merriam-Webster On-Line, we read that niche means "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted". I like that part. It also says "a specialized market".
A simple Google search yields 16,200,000 hits for Smalltalk. Java yields 1,020,000,000. Okay, mind-share is smaller. What about where it really counts? What does DICE have to say about this? Smalltalk keyword matches on 43 job postings. Java gets 13,852.
Okay, so we're marginalized. A little. At least we're not a comodity. :) But what does a gross Google comparison show anyway? For example, when I used "piano" I got 223,000,000 hits and for "playstation" there were 210,000,000. Wow. I wonder if most piano players also have Playstations? Gee, I do. As an amusing aside, I own 3 piano-keyboards and 3 playstations. Wonder what that says? All kidding aside, I'm not so sure niche is a bad thing.
Revered automobiles are certainly in a small market share. How about home stereos? Everyone can think of niche audio systems. And no one I know thinks they are undeserved of an excellent reputation. Most people also know they don't need them. NIche. How about my favorite computer, Apple Macintosh? There's a niche market. But they seem to be gaining mind-set (hell, what other direction can they go?). Apple seems to be a strong healthy company. Maybe niche isn't so bad.
The real challenge is that I really do want to see Smalltalk get back what we lost. And more. Sure, we gave a lot up by stupidity. I'm perfectly happy to see Java remain strong, although there's evidence that it's peaking. The whole body of work out there that needs technologies like Smalltalk is substantial enough to give us plenty of room for success. And real financial growth. As much as I love the ideas, concepts and elegance of Smalltalk, it also needs to be there to support the financial model of employment. CinCom, and others, needs to be wildly successful. Companies adopting this technology as core need to be successful. Smalltalk success stories ought to be as legendary as the old Smalltalk -based semiconductor factory system that Sam Adams worked on.
From my point of view, Smalltalk isn't dead. But we're also not visible enough as leaders. We're currently niche.
Posted: Sunday - April 16, 2006 at 09:15 AM |
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