Fw: [squeak-dev] From Smalltalk to Squeak by Dan Ingalls at CHM 10/11/2001 (VPRI 797)

> From: Trygve Reenskaug <[hidden email]>
> Reply To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> Cc: Any question about pharo is welcome <[hidden email]>
> Date: Sunday, December 28, 2014 at 7:16:04 AM
> Subject: Re: [squeak-dev] From Smalltalk to Squeak by Dan Ingalls at CHM 10/11/2001 (VPRI 797)
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> On 25.12.2014 01:22, Yoshiki Ohshima wrote:
> > A holiday present from the past! I digitized a video tape that VPRI has and uploaded: http://youtu.be/4ki2AQvneD8  (http://youtu.be/4ki2AQvneD8) Hope you enjoy it!  
> Dear Dan,  
> Thank you for taking the trouble to record the history of Smalltalk history; I think it is both interesting and important to understand how the Smalltalk technology evolved.
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> I hear you refer to Smalltalk as a programming language.  Most of the programmers I know will misunderstand this. To them, a program is a text written in a programming language. The text is the Real Thing, the executable is derived.  
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> Contrast with  Alan's definition of object orientation: Objects are like computers communicating through a very fast network. With Smalltalk, communication became a first class citizen of computing. The Real Thing is now a universe of communicating objects. Objects are mustered on the fly to perform a task. There is no "Smalltalk Language" in the common sense of the word.  It is true that Smalltalk releases have a default language for compiling  methods within a class. The compiler is private to the class; other classes may use different compilers and, therefore, different languages. For example, VisualWorks had a class where the methods were written in SQL.  
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> My main objection to calling Smalltalk a programing language is that it belittles its importance. IMO, Alan's concept of object orientation that is reified in Smalltalk is the the most important software invention since the first programming languages in the 1950s. It heralds an entirely new way of thinking about computing by replacing the underlying digital computer with a universe of communicating entities. I call it an object computer. (I see signs of this idea cropping up in other contexts as for example in "Unikernels: Rise of the Virtual Library Operating System (http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2566628)").  
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> We are only scratching the surface of the object computer's capabilities. I hope we in the coming years will deepen our understanding of what this invention entails and create powerful ways to exploit it. Squeak and its derivatives give us a flying start.  
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> I wish you all a productive and Happy New Year
> --Trygve
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> --  
>  
> Trygve Reenskaug      mailto: [hidden email] (mailto:[hidden email])  
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