Reality intrudes again and again.

> Do you routinely pay twice as much for
> everything and always grab the thing
> right by the cash register because its
> easy to find?

If I'm starving, and I'm about to pass out,
and I know I'll earn $1,000 tomorrow if
I eat in the next 10 minutes, I will
HAPPILY pay $200 for some fast food crap
RIGHT NOW, than start exploring / learning /
researching / deciding on a possible
path that would cost me $100 some time
in the HOPEFULLY near future. Sure, it
MAY be healthier, and allow me to live
longer, but if I don't get it soon enough
I'll pass out and die.

Customer wants reports. Reports CANNOT be
provided by current system. System must
be rewritten to allow for the reports while
maintaining the same abilities. Customer
wants reports NOW. Every day longer makes
for an unhappy customer. Enough days go
by and the customer might make a decision
to use another vendor.

I have no experience in Smalltalk, and I
do not know of anyone I work with who does.
I am not qualified to judge whether or
not there would be a huge price/performance
benefit, nor can I judge a person's ability in
the environment. There MUST be a huge win
to go to any non-standard environment.

I can make that claim for Perl vs other languages
I know, but that claim only holds true for a
select minority of programmers. How will I
know if the Smalltalkers are just mediocre and
bullshitting me?

I have about 5 people in my company that
have a variety of Windows experience that
I trust. I hired them as Perl / Unix people,
but they also have the Windows C++ and Basic
experience. They are not available to draw
on for a new project, but if all hell breaks
loose in the middle of one, I can negotiate some
time from some of them to help out.

Hell, give me a few days in deep learn mode and
I know even I can be productive/dangerous in VB.
It's been years since I took it off my resume, but
I know for THIS particular project, it won't be that
complex.

We are a print and fullfillment company. We do some
data warehousing. We are not a software shop.

> I'd say that makes your CTO a piss poor consumer.

> Plenty of companies succeed and excel by staying off
> the well worn path and shopping carefully for their
> talent and technologies.

No, I'd say he knows what he wants, can envision the
steps to get there, and knows how dangerous the woods
can be.