Ralph Johnson wrote on Thu, 18 May 2006 14:23:23 -0500
> On 5/18/06, Jecel Assumpcao Jr wrote:
> > In 1972 we got the seed (objects and messages) and in 1976 the current
> > form (vm, classes as objects, inheritance).
> 
> What does "invented" mean?  And what is Smalltalk?

What does "mean" mean?

:-) Just kidding!
 
> In my opinion, the class library is as important as the vm and the
> language syntax, and the culture is as important as the class library.
>  They have been developing continually.  So, I do not think that
> Smalltalk has ever been created.  We can say when key ideas were
> invented, but Smalltalk is much more than vm and classes as objects.

Exactly.

One thing that shocked me was how many Smalltalkers didn't like Self or
were at least very indifferent to it. I think it was Mario Wolczko who
said "Self is like Smalltalk, only more so!", which is how I feel about
it. But obviously to other people it was something very different. This
is sort of like the native widgets vs Morphic or scripting vs image
debates. The community is sufficiently varied that "what is Smalltalk?"
isn't easily answered.
 
> I've been programming in Smalltalk since 1985.  It (and I) have
> changed a lot since then.  Smalltalk in 1985 had changed a fair bit
> since the original Smalltalk-80.  For example, the pluggable MVC was
> part of Smalltalk-80 R 2, but not the original R1, and understanding
> pluggability was important for me.  Pluggability has become an
> important part of the culture.

Yeah, though it took a while for it to spread to the Digitalk side of
the tracks.

> Of course, Smalltalk hasn't changed as much as it should have, but
> that is a different story.

Well, that is the story I am particularly interested in.

-- Jecel