But isn't the old list implementation (mostly) the same that is used in squeak (and feels faster there?) ?
yes, but we use it very differently :)
we add tons and tons of functionality on top of it, so we made, Nautilus for example, slower. Is not a problem of the list: is that we are/were using it differently, and in a very different way of his first intention (take a pluggable list, add 1k strings: works��� add 1k icons��� works worst, but works��� add 1k buttons instead those icons��� and suffer��� :P).
Esteban