NC: "Are you so sure the ideas behind Smalltalk were not primarily that of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionist_learning ?"
Yes.
Alan Kay was challenged that he couldn't write the foundations of a language below a certain level of parameters. He says,
sure I can. Comes back the next day with an outline on half a page. That's where I Smalltalk started, with an act of contrariness.
I can relate to that.
The Dynabook was for children and such. Even if Alan Kay shows up and says he invented Smalltalk for children, from
what I've read, I'm not buying it. I see a pattern with programmers and innovation: they follow a path they discover and
bring something into the world. Sometimes things just want to be born. They don't need a cause to justify themselves.
Chris
Locked
