[Newbies] Squeak vs. Smalltalk

[Steve Lloyd]

David's summary put the relationship between Squeak and Smalltalk very well

"Squeak is an implementation of Smalltalk"

... but a Smalltalk with a unique cultural background, a helpful community and some features which mean that as your experience and interests evolve you can delve into the system at many levels. For example Squeak is uniquely able to help you in exploring the workings of the virtual machine which supports the rest of the system. Its also the most widely deployed Smalltalk system (thanks to One Laptop Per Child & Etoys).

Because of the way in which Squeak has grown organically, there are inevitably some areas which don't match everyone's tastes, hence projects like Pharo which pares down Squeak to suit developers. (But I'm sure even the most hard-bitten of developers can benefit from an occasional rummage in the more exotic appendages of Squeak). Interestingly the Squeak Board seem to be tentatively aiming for future development of a 'modular' Squeak, in which the various interest groups can load features on top of a clean stable core. ( listen to the interview at  http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/audio/2009/industry_misinterpretations131.mp3 ).

The commercial Smalltalks have their own areas of excellence (aside from support), but the great thing is that each group embraces the notion that cooperation and cross-sharing can only benefit the community as a whole. The porting of Seaside to the various dialects is a good example of this.

If you'd like to explore the fascinating history of Smalltalk and Squeak one thing you should do is listen to the interview with Dan Ingalls at http://www.twit.tv/floss29 and there is Alan Kay's "The early history of Smalltalk" http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks/SmalltalkHistoryHOPL.pdf



International Baccalaureate   Steve Lloyd ICT Technical Analyst - Research Engineer
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________________________________________
From: beginners-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org [beginners-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Avidan Ackerson [avidan.ackerson at gmail.com]
Sent: 21 April 2009 03:44
To: beginners at lists.squeakfoundation.org
Subject: [Newbies] Squeak vs. Smalltalk

I know that Squeak is written in Smalltalk, but are there specific
advantages to Squeak over Smalltalk proper?
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