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Even so, I suspect kids find smalltalk easier to learn than adults,
especially adults with prior programming experience.<br>
<br>
L.<br>
<br>
On 2/11/12 2:31 PM, Chris Cunnington wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:E8D73E7A-3380-4987-AC4E-E5E43C1C9CC1@gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>@<i style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times;
font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing:
normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align:
-webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width:
0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: medium;
">Paul DeBruicker</i></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>"In the meantime, there was the need for a new kind of object
oriented language that could be programmed by young children. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I had been thinking about it, but was interrupted by a
hallway bet about “how large would a description of the world’s
most powerful computer language be?” </div>
<div>Having understood John McCarthy’s LISP by then, I said “Half
a page!” They said “Prove it”. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Two weeks later I had this for the kernel of a new kind of
object-based language, using some of John’s techniques, but put
in directly executable form. </div>
<div>The kernel of Smalltalk. How small powerful “computer
math” can be.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One month later my colleague Dan Ingalls had programmed this
into one of our minicomputers and we suddenly</div>
<div>had a working, very high level, simple and powerful dynamic
object language!"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004002_center.pdf">http://www.vpri.org/pdf/m2004002_center.pdf</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Written by Alan Kay and from VPRI. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Not surprisingly, Alan Kay had many objectives he wanted to
achieve. Two are mentioned in the first sentence. The inciting </div>
<div>incident is a bet. In the fifth sentence he says "a new kind
of object-based language" was created. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Note Bene: He does not say a new children's language was
created. Under pressure from the bet, his priorities separated,
and he created a </div>
<div>new OO language. The impetus to use it to assist children in
education reasserted itself later. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The bet in question was not about a children's language. It
was about the "most powerful computer language". He uses the
word</div>
<div>"power" in this passage three times and word "child" once. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>So there you have it, Paul. You just stood at the moment of
creation. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Chris </div>
<br>
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