Its a sad but true fact that perception is reality for most of us. Unfortunately this means that looks matter. Most Smalltalk UI’s look like hangovers from Windows 3.1 (or in Squeak’s case, Toys R Us). Folks may moan about Swing being complicated, but the complexity and abstractness of the framework gives it incredible flexibility, beyond that of .Net winforms.

I fear Smalltalk will remain marginalised until its possible to build UI’s of the quality and responsiveness of IntelliJ IDEA with it.

I’m waiting for Pollock – the next generation UI framework for VisualWorks. The bar is high. I hope it makes it.