FYI
Smalltalk is about objects which act like small computers
communicating with each other ....
Hannes
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Trygve Reenskaug <
[hidden email]>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 11:16:04 +0100
Subject: Re: [squeak-dev] From Smalltalk to Squeak by Dan Ingalls at
CHM 10/11/2001 (VPRI 797)
To:
[hidden email]
Cc: Any question about pharo is welcome <
[hidden email]>
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>
> 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.
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.
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.
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>").
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.
I wish you all a productive and Happy New Year
--Trygve
--
Trygve Reenskaug mailto:
[hidden email]
Morgedalsvn. 5A
http://folk.uio.no/trygver/N-0378 Oslo
http://fullOO.infoNorway Tel: (+47) 22 49 57 27
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