Hacker News: igouy

New comment by igouy in "Squeak 6.1"

igouy — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 16:31:01 +0000

It's unfortunate but understandable that the stuff which is most different from other programming environments grabs attention and the basic stuff is hardly mentioned.

> break it irreversibly

Nope. "Cuis-Smalltalk records any action occurring in the environment: the code you edit in the System Browser, the code you execute in a Workspace. Therefore, in the event of a Cuis-Smalltalk crash you can restore unsaved changes when you launch the same Cuis-Smalltalk image again."

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Log.html

> bespoke and unreproducible

So there have been all manner of ways to save code changes as plain text in files (or other formats in databases).

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Set.html

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Package.html

New comment by igouy in "Squeak 6.1"

igouy — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 18:09:34 +0000

For example:

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Log.html

New comment by igouy in "Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7"

igouy — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:15:53 +0000

Back in the day those were not unusual costs for programming tools. (Beer wasn't free.)

New comment by igouy in "Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7"

igouy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:00:44 +0000

Java being free-as-in-beer.

New comment by igouy in "Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7"

igouy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:59:32 +0000

March 7, 1988 — "Smalltalk/V 286 is available now and costs $199.95, the company said. Registered users of Digitalk's Smalltalk/V can upgrade for $75 until June 1."

https://books.google.com/books?id=CD8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA25&dq=d...

September 1991 — "Smalltalk/V code is portable between the Windows and the OS/2 versions. And the resulting application carries no runtime charges. All for just $499.95."

(Advert on the last page of "The Smalltalk Report")

https://rmod-files.lille.inria.fr/Archives/TheSmalltalkRepor...

New comment by igouy in "Steel Bank Common Lisp version 2.6.7"

igouy — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:52:29 +0000

> You can not combine two (or more) images.

Depends what you mean. Details matter.

> You can not build new things by using "images" as components.

Depends what you mean. Details matter.

New comment by igouy in "Neither GCC nor Clang are compliant with standard C++"

igouy — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:09:12 +0000

== Long-ago, Smalltalk systems could be file-copied from say win to mac to unices and would just work.

== Not standardized. Language vendors used proprietary code to lock-in customers and that fragmented the skills base. Skilled Smalltalk-A programmers were not-so-skilled with Smalltalk-B.

== Not free as in beer.

New comment by igouy in "Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language"

igouy — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:25:12 +0000

By design, the 8 year old page you linked presented Lisp measurements side-by-side against Java measurements (by excluding the other programs).

There's overlap across most of the different language implementations:

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

New comment by igouy in "C++: The Documentary"

igouy — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:36:49 +0000

Which new languages have risen to prominence outside of a niche?

New comment by igouy in "Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language"

igouy — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:57:35 +0000

> The C/C++ implementations use SIMD intrinsic

Except when they don't.

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

New comment by igouy in "Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language"

igouy — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:26:06 +0000

> Huh.

The hardware changed.

The way measurements were made changed.

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

The Java version changed.

The SBCL version changed.

> side by side

You'd have to say what you mean by that.

New comment by igouy in "Elixir v1.20: Now a gradually typed language"

igouy — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:01:54 +0000

That's someone's 8 year old mirror of the benchmarks game website.

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...

New comment by igouy in "SBCL: A Sanely-Bootstrappable Common Lisp (2008) [pdf]"

igouy — Tue, 26 May 2026 19:47:11 +0000

> … so that, when you look at an image, or when you use it, browse the code, you can easily see what are changes and what is the base image…

You seem to be asking about something that is in documentation from 1984.

http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/TheInteractiveProg...

> i am not suggesting that smalltalk needs to be changed…

Smalltalk has been changed, several times.

"With ENVY/Manager the image becomes a discardable by-product of development, secondary to the repository that stores and coordinates all work."

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mastering_ENVY_Develope...

"The way ChangeSets are created and managed in Cuis is different from Squeak."

https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/blob/ma...

New comment by igouy in "Why senior developers fail to communicate their expertise"

igouy — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:05:14 +0000

fwiw "This paper has described ThingLab, a simulation laboratory."

https://worrydream.com/refs/Borning_1981_-_The_Programming_L...

New comment by igouy in "The RAM shortage could last years"

igouy — Sun, 17 May 2026 15:34:43 +0000

> People who don't know … can come to very wrong conclusions.

Always.

> … website should at least explain…

Whatever the explanation, it would never be sufficient for you.

As you said -- "If you're asking what multi-lingual benchmark suites offer good coverage - I don't know."

New comment by igouy in "Smalltalk: The Software Industry's Greatest Failure"

igouy — Sun, 17 May 2026 14:56:15 +0000

Strange that "the software crisis" preceded Smalltalk.

New comment by igouy in "Smalltalk: The Software Industry's Greatest Failure"

igouy — Sat, 16 May 2026 18:56:48 +0000

So there were no problems with the technology?

So "the pride and ego" was grander than any other tech leaders?

New comment by igouy in "Which programming language is fastest?"

igouy — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:20:48 +0000

There'll be more than one that fits the tests.

Some people notice these are tiny tiny programs which have nothing to say about servers "expected to run without issue for at least a day".

New comment by igouy in "Which programming language is fastest?"

igouy — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:10:08 +0000

Then we can skip ahead: language implementations aren't fast, programs are fast.

And skip again: "Fastest" contributed programs, grouped by programming language implementation.

Now we've cut-through, is there anything else to be said?

New comment by igouy in "SBCL: A Sanely-Bootstrappable Common Lisp (2008) [pdf]"

igouy — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:21:50 +0000

> … the point of a reproducible build is to verify that the binary i use, or that the package i use is based on the same source that i have.

I have been talking about how to reproduce a particular build, not how to verify.

From the same initial state, perform the same sequence of actions, implies arrive at the same final state. Reproducible.

"Retaining your old change logs gives you a record of all the changes you have made to the system. This will prove invaluable when you receive a new release of Smalltalk/V. … In short, back up the image and change log together, and you shouldn't have any problems."

page 285 Smalltalk/V 286 Tutorial and Programming Handbook 1988