I, as a programmer, spend my days trying to express things as clearly as possible. Programming, as a whole field, is trying hard all the time to come up with safer and simpler ways to express precise thoughts.
Smalltalk is probably neat, but it’s not a magic bullet. There are no magic bullets. Anyone can’t be a programmer not because programming languages are hard. Anyone can’t be a programmer because you have to be able to think precisely, abstract, deal with complexity.
Yeah, the simple explanation as to why the programming community at large doesn't agree on languages or methodologies is that no one knows what they are doing. This is still a very new field. We're all just bashing rocks together. To declare some language or methodology as universally "better" just reveals a fundamental lack of insight into just how difficult the problem being solved really is.
> I, as a programmer, spend my days trying to express things as clearly as possible. Programming, as a whole field, is trying hard all the time to come up with safer and simpler ways to express precise thoughts.
Mmm... I'm not so sure. "Programming as a field" certainly does, in the sense that if you take it as a whole and look into the field, there are people trying for those things. But by and large, many programmers seem to revel in some degree of obscurantism.
I, as a programmer, spend my days trying to express things as clearly as possible. Programming, as a whole field, is trying hard all the time to come up with safer and simpler ways to express precise thoughts.
Smalltalk is probably neat, but it’s not a magic bullet. There are no magic bullets. Anyone can’t be a programmer not because programming languages are hard. Anyone can’t be a programmer because you have to be able to think precisely, abstract, deal with complexity.