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Pharo is Smalltalk… and Not

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Sean P. DeNigris

Pharo is Smalltalk… and Not

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All of the arguments why Pharo is Smalltalk are correct.

Let me tell you a story...
My friends and I are planning a trip to Spain. I am explaining that in Spanish, "yo" - which means "hi" in English slang - means "l". They are arguing passionately that "yo" means "hi" and presenting evidence upon evidence to prove it. Then I snap back that, no, "yo" definitely means "I". Ridiculous, right? Sounds kind of like a Monty Python skit.

Well, Pharo is planning a trip to the programming world of non-Smalltalkers. I am explaining that in Ruby, "Smalltalk" - which means "a language with a development environment written in itself which both were designed to continually evolve*" in the Smalltalk community - means "Smalltalk-80". My friends are arguing passionately that "Smalltalk" means the former and presenting evidence upon evidence to prove it.

Both of these disagreements fail to take into account that truth is contextual and language imprecise.

So please, please, please, please, please, no more theses on why Pharo is Smalltalk, or why it's not. It's neither, and both, and more!

We're talking about effectively marketing to non-Smalltalkers, and our theory (only time will tell) is: for our first initial sound bite, Smalltalk-inspired (or silent about Smalltalk, which I think may be even better) will be more intention revealing to the target audience than Smalltalk. Either way, we're going to have to do some more explaining if they're interested in hearing more. But with the first, maybe, they will be interested in hearing more before being turned off by a preconceived (and incomplete) notion of what "Smalltalk" is.

But there is a valid question here of how to manage the inevitable misunderstandings... I'll posted some ideas for that in a bit...

Cheers,
Sean

Sean P. DeNigris

Re: Pharo is Smalltalk… and Not

Administrator

Here's my musings about how we integrate the two motives - to acknowledge our heritage /and/ break out of our pigeon hole. My key point here is to gradually introduce the Smalltalk part after people are deep enough to have gotten excited about the ideas without dismissing them because of cultural baggage...

Drilling down:
1. Sound bite: "Pharo - The immersive programming experience"
2. Why Pharo: (about a paragraph, like the one on the site now, "Pharo gives you immediate and total control over your programming experience..."
3. What is it. Here we can accurately paint the nuanced picture, distinguishing Smalltalk as an idea based on design principles vs. Smalltalk-80. If "Smalltalk" more exactly means an environment + libraries + a language (I think that order is important - the syntax was always the least interesting thing about Smalltalk). What we might really say if we had the time to go beyond an initial sound bite is:
Pharo is:
- a [pick 2 or 3 of: dynamic, open, immersive, live] environment (like an IDE and OS rolled into one)
- beautifully designed core libraries including a web client/server, FFI, Y, Z...
- a dialect of the Smalltalk programming language

For #1, the inspiration is most accurately the Dynabook
For #2, IMHO enough components have been rewritten to stand on it's own
For #3, this is where we are most obviously a Smalltalk, and should be clear about it

And in an FAQ answer any common objections people might have:
Q: Is Pharo Smalltalk?
A: When most people hear "Smalltalk", they think of Smalltalk-80, which Pharo is not. However, Smalltalk is really an idea... the lineage of which Pharo is a proud member
Q: Can I talk to the world outside the environment?
A: Yes! While the original Smalltalk was quite insulated, now you can [interact on the command line](link to unix command line examples e.g. the very Ruby-like pharo [image filename] -e "self inform: 'hello world'"), [talk to C libraries](link to native boost), etc.
yada yada yada

Cheers,
Sean

Andreas Wacknitz

Re: Pharo is Smalltalk… and Not

Why not just
'Pharo is a Smalltalk for the 21st century. What we have now C#, Java and the like will try to „invent" during the next thirty years!
If you want the future now come and take a closer look...'

Andreas

S Krish

Re: Pharo is Smalltalk… and Not

In reply to this post by Sean P. DeNigris

I understand the part about making Pharo appeal more to the wider audience in this decade and ahead....

Let me put in the effort in making that happen, before I say another word on this. Making a platform that I can be most productive in be the most accepted one across the industry is a big win for me...

On Thu, May 1, 2014 at 2:20 AM, Sean P. DeNigris <[hidden email]> wrote:

Here's my musings about how we integrate the two motives - to acknowledge our
heritage /and/ break out of our pigeon hole. My key point here is to
gradually introduce the Smalltalk part after people are deep enough to have
gotten excited about the ideas without dismissing them because of cultural
baggage...

Drilling down:
1. Sound bite: "Pharo - The immersive programming experience"
2. Why Pharo: (about a paragraph, like the one on the site now, "Pharo gives
you immediate and total control over your programming experience..."
3. What is it. Here we can accurately paint the nuanced picture,
distinguishing Smalltalk as an idea based on design principles vs.
Smalltalk-80. If "Smalltalk" more exactly means an environment + libraries +
a language (I think that order is important - the syntax was always the
least interesting thing about Smalltalk). What we might really say if we had
the time to go beyond an initial sound bite is:
Pharo is:
- a [pick 2 or 3 of: dynamic, open, immersive, live] environment (like an
IDE and OS rolled into one)
- beautifully designed core libraries including a web client/server, FFI,
Y, Z...
- a dialect of the Smalltalk programming language

For #1, the inspiration is most accurately the Dynabook
For #2, IMHO enough components have been rewritten to stand on it's own
For #3, this is where we are most obviously a Smalltalk, and should be clear
about it

And in an FAQ answer any common objections people might have:
Q: Is Pharo Smalltalk?
A: When most people hear "Smalltalk", they think of Smalltalk-80, which
Pharo is not. However, Smalltalk is really an idea... the lineage of which
Pharo is a proud member
Q: Can I talk to the world outside the environment?
A: Yes! While the original Smalltalk was quite insulated, now you can
[interact on the command line](link to unix command line examples e.g. the
very Ruby-like pharo [image filename] -e "self inform: 'hello world'"),
[talk to C libraries](link to native boost), etc.
yada yada yada

-----
Cheers,
Sean
--
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