[klez]

> On the other hand, if you wanted to make a cross-platform desktop application that doesn't look native (which, given the prevalence of Electron, doesn't seem to matter too much to people), this would be an excellent choice.

Yeah, as if people are going to install a whole virtual machine to run a chat application...

Wait...

[rbanffy]

> Yeah, as if people are going to install a whole virtual machine to run a chat application...

You can install an application that launches the VM with the desired image and the user will never know the app is running inside a Smalltalk VM.

[masukomi]

i think they were being sarcastic, because slack is JavaScript in a VM (Electron) to run a chat application.

[protomyth]

Yep, it still amazes me how a lot of the criticisms of Smalltalk have been become the new, cool solution. Smalltalk on Electron would be an interesting answer.

[armagon]

That'd be funny.

I'm sure you could do it with https://www.amber-lang.net/ ;-)

[ethagnawl]

I have a short anecdote about Amber, which may or may not be widely known.

Amber.js was the original name of Ember.js (so named after the style of beer one of its creators was drinking when they were searching for a name; if memory serves it was also the result of pulling bits and pieces out of SproutCore.js). When it came time to release the project, the authors of A/Ember were notified that they were encroaching on the name of a pre-existing project and changed it.

[masukomi]

what bewildered me at the time was that they never did a google search for it before publicizing their chosen name. Or that maybe they did and said "screw it. who cares about smalltalk. we'll steal their name"