Smalltalk - Re: Can Pharo meet all your computing needs?

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Re: Can Pharo meet all your computing needs?

Posted by Trygve on Aug 26, 2014; 10:57am
URL: https://forum.world.st/Can-Pharo-meet-all-your-computing-needs-tp4774250p4774826.html

It's very vague; I'm thinking as I write. My off-the-cuff answer: Start from Alan's definition of object orientation: "... Thus its semantics are a bit like having thousands and thousands of computers all hooked together by a very fast network." The BOOK consists of its own objects as well as objects anywhere on the net. The remote objects may be written by anybody in any language, but they communicate with the BOOK according to a fixed message interaction contract. (Contrast with procedure call interfaces).

There will be many ways for linking users with producers. Google?

Alan Kay once said something like "an operating system is what the language designers omitted to include in their language". Smalltalk was built directly on top of the hardware microcode; it was its own operating system rather than an app. The BOOK should be similar. More like iOS than an app.

This is fun
--Trygve
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I am using the term BOOK rather than Dynabook because Alan Kay has the moral copyright to the latter and he may not agree with what we are doing.

On 25.08.2014 16:15, S Krish wrote:

" The Dynabook SW architecture must be open so that owners can safely install functionality ('apps') that is available in a marketplace. (The i-pad with its hardware and its marketplace for apps is at the back of my mind.)"

Can the intent be expanded a bit more. Is this an intent to have a Pharo / ST / Dynabook based marketplace or more extensive ?

On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 3:33 PM, Trygve Reenskaug <[hidden email]> wrote:

I don't think the current Smalltalk architecture can meet all your computing needs because security isn't part of its core and because it is inconceivable that all the necessary programs can be developed within its boundaries.

Like several people I met at ESUG, my goal is the Dynabook and the Dynabook shall, by definition, meet all your needs. A Dynabook must be safe so that its owner is protected from hackers and other evildoers. The Dynabook SW architecture must be open so that owners can safely install functionality ('apps') that is available in a marketplace. (The i-pad with its hardware and its marketplace for apps is at the back of my mind.)

I can only see one path from here to there. Start from e.g., Pharo and simplify it to create a Dynabook architecture with owner programming and with opening for safely adding functionality safely ad lib. (I suppose this is an ST based OS?)

Any takers?
--Trygve

On 23.08.2014 17:04, Wilfred Hughes wrote:

Hi folks

I've been playing with Pharo recently, and really enjoying writing some programs in the Pharo environment.

As a result, I've been wondering if I can use Pharo the way I would use Emacs, as an environment for doing everything.

For example, can I use Pharo to:

* Send emails to this mailing list?
* Use IRC?
* Start Bash?
* Read the Pharo documentation (e.g. Pharo By Example)?

If these things do exist, how do I discover them? Is there a package manager I can use to find new tools I can use in Pharo?