Squeak jobs
not too easy to come by. Smalltalk jobs in general - I've gotten a few hits for that lately. From all over the US no less. They've been Smalltalk and (insert totally unrelated technology here) and I've been lacking the latter. For instance, I just got an inquiry on Smalltalk that reads:
I received a 3-6 month contract inChicagofor a Smalltalk Programmer withDelphiexperience. This is a small company in the financial industry that\ufffds looking for a contractor to come in for some maintenance and enhancement work. The program works on aDelphidatabase so the candidate MUST have working experience withDelphi. Part time telecommuting MAY be a possibility if you are willing to be flexible on your rate requirements.
Other requirements are WinBatch, Java, C++, Tomcat/Catalina and working knowledge of Windows 2000/NT.
WTF?
Anyhow, since the squeak vm is really easy to port and open, some embedded systems have been made with it - like palmtops. Otherwise there are a few places using Seaside - the web app lib. I know that whistler.com is working on building some of their local booking system in Seaside.
So as a resume builder - I don't think its a biggie. But as a programming lab its cool. And there are a lot of cool learning projects for kids at squeakland.org
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
--Alan Perlis
