Smalltalk, just take a look.

I love languages, I check a lot of them out to see what might ‘fit’ the way I think or do things.

I honestly believe we should write low level code at the lowest level possible and everything else at the highest level possible. Practically all languages above say C are just high level languages using low level paradigms and I just don’t think the abstractions go far enough.

But I digress. I’m just here to implore you to take a look into the past to see how we should be working now and perhaps into the future, take a look at Smalltalk!

I’ve often read a lot of good things about Smalltalk, but always dismissed it as a relic of the past and thinking “if it’s relevant today, why isn’t everyone using it”. I’m sure I’m not alone in this thinking, then I tried it…

What are we doing! Honestly, this Smalltalk ‘thing’ is awesome, and to think they were doing this 50 odd years ago is mind blowing![1]. How did we lose our way?!Granted, computer power — or lack thereof — probably played some part and I’m sure there were other financial (and probably political) reasons it didn’t take hold but today there really is no excuse!

I’m definitely not saying “Smalltalk will save the Universe”, it wont, but we could all learn a lot from its elegance and they way it does things. Even if you just watch some videos or have a read on the weekend you’ll come away with a different perspective and perhaps some good ideas.

Anyway, here’s a taste of what’s possible -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if72CFsF_SY&t=1823s

[1] as an aside, Steve Jobs was said to have seen the GUI of this system when touring the Xerox/PARC facilities one day and was so blown away he apparently missed some of the most important features of the system[2]. Apple and Windows got the ‘window’ system but missed the rest.

[2] please don’t quote me on that, I remember reading something about this in a letter from Alan Kay somewhere. If you want to argue the point, put up the evidence to set the record straight and we’ll call it a day ;)