Episode 86: Interview Dave Thomas

This episode is an interview with Dave Thomas (OTI Dave or
Smalltalk Dave, not PragDave). We started our discussion with a
look at the (non-)success of objects and components. We then
discussed some history behine Eclipse and Dave's role in OTI. We
then compared Smalltalk and Ruby and looked at the promises of
small and powerful languages such as Lisp. We also discussed the
role of (static) type systems and the role of tool support for
languages. We then switched gears and looked at what is necessary
to scale agile development to the level of large organizations and
how techniques from lean production and manufacturing as well as
product management can play an important role. In the last part of
the interview we looked at the state of research today, and
especially the relationship between industry and academia in this
area. We concluded the interview with Dave's opinion on what it
takes to be a good developer.