Hello, why can't I download VAST 8.0?

[Lord_British]

Hello and good evening everybody,

I have read this article on Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk- ... sprache%29

I have gotten courious and have tried to download VAST 8.0, but unfortunately the homepage told me "blah, we cannot accept an yahoo.de e-mail address..."
I'm really disappointed for 2 reasons:

(1) Smalltalk isn't a secret language nor is it the central point of all worldwide programming languages -> I supposed that the OEMs would appraciate it, whenever somebody is interested in Smalltalk?

(2) Two months ago I clicked on the homepage of Cincom and wanted to download their Smalltalk-IDE, called Cincom Smalltalk Visual Works 7.7.
After clicking thru many dialogues and front ends I finallly reached the download link. Before I could download, I had to register me with full address. One week later I got via FedEx a package from the USA. I was really surprised, cause I had never had any relations with the USA so far. As I saw that it was a full package of Cincom Smalltalk containing 2 CDROMs with lovingly made plastic cases and a small handbook. I thought in that moment "wow Jesus Christ, Cincom must be a very kind software-vendor and if I were a IT-Manager and decision maker in a pure programming project I would consider Cincom!"

Because of lack of enough spare time I put this package in my storage rack and postponed the targeted moment to install this software.
Today at 10:00 o'clock I got a surprising call on my mobile telephone while I was working on a business report with C/AL.
It was Mr. Nowak, a Technical Account Manager Cincom Smalltalk.
He asked me if I were satisfied with Cincom. I was really perplexed and answered him, that I am really more than content. Furthermore I expressed my surprise because I'm not used to be supported that way. Mr. Nowak was very nice and polite to me and we talked about 5 minutes. I appreciated this very much and interrupted my work on the business report.

Btw: my daily work consists of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft SQL-Server. I'm an IT-Consultant and C/AL-, TSQL-Developer and cannot remember, that Microsoft ever called my by phone when I downloaded its trial software editions. Microsoft is a very silent software vendor

The conclusion is, that the process to get Visual Works is much more pleasant than that of getting Visual Age (VAST).

I'm not really disappointed by this behaviour of VAST, beeing only interested in Smalltalk in general and not in a certain IDE.
But I disbelieve and doubt that VAST will get ever more customers than Cincom by this user-unfriendly behaviour!
Four years ago, when I was a student I worked in the computer lab with Smalltalk.
Therefore now I have been beeing courious about what happened with the language and the various IDEs and have read the article on Wikipedia.de

These were just my 2 cents.

I send you cordial greetings from Germany, Böblingen (near by Stuttgart) and wish you a pleasant working journey in the USA.
Now I will go to bed, it is midnight here

[Eric Clayberg]

I have gotten curious and have tried to download VAST 8.0, but unfortunately the homepage told me "blah, we cannot accept an yahoo.de e-mail address..."

That is not what it says. Here is what it actually says...

We do not automatically issue evaluation license keys to @yahoo.xxx email addresses.

If you wish to continue, please make sure that your contact information is complete and accurate.
Within 3 business days, a sales representative will

• review and verify the information you provided,
• activate your account to download the product evaluations you requested, and
• email you a username/password which you can use to download.

If you wish to obtain an evaluation key more quickly, then

• click your browser's back button, and
• enter a corporate email address instead.

The automatic evaluation system does not accept yahoo or hotmail addresses (and possibly a few other combinations) because they have been massive sources of spam and fake addresses. We are happy to let you evaluate VA Smalltalk (a commercial product), but we actually want real contact information and a valid corporate e-mail address. You can certainly use one of those addresses if you wish, but you will need to wait for it to be manually vetted and enabled as stated above.