This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Productivity? Where is it? Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Gary Short points out how - even though it has libraries for lots and lots of stuff - .NET hinders productivity in critical ways. This isn't unique to .NET - Java has exactly the same problem - sealed classes. Here's a great example:

Here at Scotland On Line a colleague is working on an ASP.Net project. There's a requirement to add a number of working days to a DateTime object. A quick look at the DataTime object shows us that there's no such method. Now if we were using Smalltalk we'd be able to inherit from the DateTime object and add our AddWorkingDays method, but 'cos we're using C# and the library designers have sealed the class, we can't. Grrr!

So now we have to create a wrapper class, something like this.....

namespace SOL.UtilityClasses
{%A0%A0 public Class DateTime
%A0%A0& nbsp;{%A0
%A0&nb sp;%A0%A0%A0 private System.DateTime _dt;

%A0%A0& nbsp;%A0%A0 public DateTime(System.DateTime theDate)
%A0%A0& nbsp;%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0 {
%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0%A0%A0&nb sp;%A0%A0%A0&nbs p;_dt = theDate;
%A0%A0& nbsp;%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0 }
%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0 
%A0%A0%A0&nb sp;%A0 public SOL.UtilityClasses.DateTi me AddDays(double NumberOfDays)
%A0&n bsp;%A0%A0%A0 {
%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0%A0%A0&nb sp;%A0_dt.AddDays(Numb erOfDays);
%A0  ;%A0%A0%A0%A0 %A0%A0 return this;
%A0%A0&nbs p;%A0%A0 }

%A0%A0&nbs p;%A0%A0 // Implementation of all the other bahaviour we need.

%A0%A0 %A0%A0%A0 //Implementation of the%A0new method%A0we need
%A0%A0  ;%A0%A0 public SOL.UtilityClasses.DateTi me AddWorkingDays(int NumberOfDaysToAdd)
&nb sp;%A0%A0%A0&nbs p;%A0%A0%A0 {
%A0%A0%A0&n bsp;%A0%A0%A0&nb sp;%A0%A0%A0 //...
%A0%A0&nbs p;%A0%A0%A0  ;%A0 }%A0%A0%A0%A0 %A0
%A0%A0 }
}

...and recreate all the funtionality we need, then we have to add the extra functionality. What a waste of time!!! Why are these classes sealed, come on Microsoft you can trust us, we know what we're doing, you don't have to seal every class in the library!!

This is my answer to those who tell me "but in niche systems like Smalltalk, you have to write your own libraries for things the big vendors provide" - yeah, but Smalltalk doesn't stand in your way and block forward progress. In the case above, a Smalltalker would have added a method to class DateTime and moved on.