The biggest weakness for Smalltalk or at least our open
source version in Squeak/Pharo IMHO is its integration,
cooperation or access story to certain outside systems and
technologies. And I speak as an end user who cannot develop
a plugin, or use Alien or FFI and program in C. In my
situation for example. I have to interface to either a
Windows dll or to a Java library to access financial
servers. No choice. So I must choose a technology which can
interface their technology. In my case, I chose to use
Python to interface the Windows dll. I have written a
minimal Python app which accesses the dll and thus the
servers to access the data and my accounts. But the business
logic I am writing in Pharo. The Python app simply provides
my Pharo app the data and executes the actions directed by
the Pharo app.
Indeed. An immature FFI, lack of dll options etc.
Integration is indeed one of the biggest weaknesses. But
we're making progress here. So things may be different in
months, if not years.
[snip]