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Thank you for the clarification! I have worked with smalltalk (environment in which I learned OOP). I didn't realize that the default work environments in a Xe
by daveguy 11y ago
Thank you for the clarification! I have worked with smalltalk (environment in which I learned OOP). I didn't realize that the default work environments in a Xerox PARC were REPL lisp, smalltalk or mesa (not familiar with mesa except as reference to mesa3d -- the same?). This sounds like an awesome environment. Mathematica doesn't really capture this either, not being integrated with the OS or third party applications, does it? Sounds like MS is trying to do this with PowerShell but with a poor interface compared to smalltalk or lisp (and probably less standardized). Did Xerox control all the software or mandate programming languages or interfaces?
- pjmlp 11y agoXerox controlled the whole stack, they invented it for their systems. So these workstations where an whole stack OS. You can read about their implementations on the links I provided before. Additionally, you can get the original Smalltalk-80 from from Stephane's web site. http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html This is a very ruft idea how it felt to use a Smalltalk workstation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yxCJfayW-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yxCJfayW-8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLPiMl8XUKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLPiMl8XUKU The REPL was what is known in Smalltalk as transcript. Similarly the Interlisp-D workstation also had they own mixture of REPL and editing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlN0hHLZL8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlN0hHLZL8c Some of the ideas that lived on the Lisp Machines afterwards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOysrxexTXg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOysrxexTXg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-YnLpLgtk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-YnLpLgtk Mesa was a memory safe system programming language created at Xerox, as an evolution from Extended Algol to replace BCPL. Niklaus Wirth based his Modula-2 design on it. Shortly thereafter they updated Mesa into Cedar, which added support for RC with local GC for cycle collection. The system then got called Mesa/Cedar. It allowed the same interactive experience as the other workstations, but using a GC enabled systems programming language. The REPL provided nice features, like auto-suggestion when a typo would cause a compilation failure. It is also probably the first graphical debugger for a strong typed language. Any OS API could be used on the REPL by typing modulename.procedure , which could use other OS APIs to get its input from different sources. An idea Wirth adopted into Oberon. You can see how all three environments looked like here: http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf/literature/books/wm/p004.htm http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf/literature/books/wm/... And yes, Powershell alongside .NET is probably the closest we have in modern computers to those systems. Followed by Swift Playgrounds and AppleScript on Apple systems. Although Apple also provided similar experiences with Common Lisp, Hypercard and their NewtonScript and Dylan.
- lispm 11y agoPersonal historical favorite: MIT Lisp Machine screenshots from 1980: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/symbolics/LM-2/LM_Screen_Shots_Jun1980.pdf http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/symbolics/L...
- pjmlp 11y agoThanks, very nice screenshots. Yet another proof that the success of AT&T meant a left turn.