Live coding as a concept does not exist in most languages. The reason why they can do live coding is because out of necessity . Take exceptions for example , almost never you will find any mention about live coding but you will read about code exiting elegantly or not exiting at all and reloading modules etc. In the end all coders need a lot of flexibility during execution , especially during the process of debugging. Even in Pharo live coding shines the most during debugging process this is why they go hand in hand. The moment you have live code and state having live objects is just a consequence of having live code. If you approach it from a pure object orientated approach that is not unique either. Because nowadays we have many extremely popular languages like Python and Ruby . Python for example suppose to be a hybrid procedural and OOP language but that is a lie because in Python functions are objects. Ruby is almost Smalltalk. So both Python and Ruby are pure object orientated. Pharo crash prone behavior is not extensive. Live state will be lost for data living outside Pharo. If the data is accessed or copied from Pharo the copy will be retained through saving the image but if you don't save the live state of Pharo will be lost. Even if you do save the image the live state on the C side won't be stored so it's up to you to restore if you have the means to do so and already took the appropriate measures. This is why I made a big deal for memory mapped files because essentially they store using an auto save feature live c and C++ state. Another huge problem for Pharo is that crashes can corrupt the image which means you will have to rebuild it from scratch which can be so tedious if you have lost a lot of live state. Recovery of code is not a big deal for other programming languages cause unlike Smalltalk they are based on source code files and most modern IDEs will auto save your source code file. If you use version control that becomes unnecessary if you commit often like I do because essentially you become unable to lose code. Smalltalk and Pharo shines in the idea of a single IDE but the community is too small to afford to be fragmented between many different IDEs. In other languages some IDEs are closed source , some are open source but the trend for the past decade is toward open source IDEs. For example I code in Python and by far the most popular IDE is PyCharm , it's closed source but it has a free edition called "Community Edition" that contains most of of the commercial features (80%) it's one source and free and hosted in Github https://github.com/JetBrains/intellij-community/tree/master/python The idea of self contained environments is no big deal either because we have git forks , Python even comes with another features that allow you to create isolate environments that like Pharo contain your code, the language and any library used. Smalltalk was a bIg deal decades ago but no longer is because coders themselves may not be aware of either Smalltalk or Lisp but language and IDE designers and library developers are very much aware as both languages are considered the golden standard and very much respected. Pharo is important because is a modern implementation of Smalltalk and tries to push its concepts further. Unlike other language it's not just about copying Smalltalk or canibalizing it's ideas. It's crucial that Smalltalk continues to evolve because afterall is a language of innovation. None the less we live in a time that modern technology is very close to Smalltalk and most of its features have infected modern coding. They are fragmented or not that obvious or out of the box offered but they are there and experienced coders already rely on them to speed up their workflow. Languages like C distance themselves from Smalltalk because they prioritize performance. It's the usual case of not having your cake and eat it too. But since every language including Smalltalk is based on C for performance you can implement many of the features. Problem is that you will be reducing performance so in that case it takes more sense to use Pharo or Python or what else. In any case Pharo is a great environment to work with many flaws and unique advantages in the end Pharo is Pharo offering its own unique experience we all love and respect. Emulation is never the same as the actual thing. On Fri, 21 Jul 2017 at 19:36, Jimmie Houchin <jlhouchin@gmail.com> wrote:
Pharo (Smalltalk) is much more than simply live coding. All of us here dearly love live coding. Kilon states it is possible to do live coding in other languages. I have no experience doing so in any other language. I will say that I know of no other language that it is integral to development in that language.
Pharo is a live object environment. It has objects that would take someone with a better understanding of the entire image than myself to tell when the object was created. But suffice it to say that Pharo (Smalltalk) have some very old objects, possibly back to 1980 or 1972?
The live environment supports live objects, not just live coding as understood by someone who may attempt live coding in some language that does not by nature do live coding. Objects have state and behavior. Objects in Pharo grow and shrink in behavior and state as messages are sent to them. They evolve, they dynamic not static.
Pharo's environment can survive crashes. Yes, I know, there are times when some unrecoverable event happens and you can not recover lost changes. But the community attempts to fix anything that would cause such an event. Other languages, do not have such. Segfaulting is normal, to be expected. You go back to your dead code editor and fix what caused the segfault and start up again, clean without the state your objects were in when it happened or even before. They do autopsies on their core dumps to attempt to discover what went wrong. Yes, you can explicitly choose to run a debugger on your app to watch its state and behavior.
Pharo's environment survives shutdown of its environment and shutdown or restart of an operating system. Once restarted your Pharo environment is exactly as it was with all it's live objects and live code. It survives change of operating systems and computers. All the image needs is the appropriate vm for the image and the operating system currently running.
Pharo can survive stupid programmer errors. I have written infinite loops and lived to tell about it. My objects and environment survived. I have written code which took hours to execute over a large set of data only to discover I had an error in my code on the last method or so that executed and it raised a debugger. I fixed it and continued. Nice. In some other language, you fix and start over executing that multiple hour process and hope there are no more errors.
I know of no other language that facilitates this behavior. The editing of the code is in a different environment from the execution of the code. The state of the objects in the executing code disappears when the code ceasing execution whether by choice or error. And yes, some of that is and can be mitigated by files and databases. Live debugging of code is by executing an application (debugger) on the application you want to debug. This all by nature is static and dead. Only to discover problems in my fixed in time code and objects. You can't fix the debugger while debugger some program. I don't know that you necessarily fix the program outside of discover of where to fix it in the separate editing process. Then you start all over again.
Even if you can overcome ever single one of my perceived technical difficulties. And I may be in error. I do not program in those environments and have little experience there. One thing that is indisputable at least to my understanding is this. Whatever language you may overcome all of this in, you are quite possibly doing it alone or at best in very small groups. There is no community or cultural support.
Pharo has a community, a culture which supports the artifact which provides this live object environment. This is of tremendous value. Pharo has a culture which supports live objects and live coding. It has a culture that says your stupid code should not crash the environment. If it does, we need to fix it.
Pharo is not perfect. Its community is not perfect. But I have not found anything or place better.
So I am learning C, and dead programming hopefully sufficiently enough that I can bridge the gap where Pharo does it well or where Pharo could use a little outside help. But I still get to live in my nice live object environment.
I have nothing against other languages. I would love it if there were other languages which had this ability and culture. But I don't find them anywhere. I have programmed in Python, Lua, played with PicoLisp. Pharo is home. :)
And to top it all off, Stef's Pharo 7 and 8 roadmap looks pretty sweet.
I just wanted to say that Pharo (Smalltalk) is so much more than what I perceive other languages understanding of live coding to be. And that I know of no other language or community which approaches what is done by nature in Pharo (Smalltalk).
All the above is my naive opinion. Do with it as you will.
Have a great day!
Jimmie