Regarding Smalltalk, I don't think Alan Kay has ever felt it was a pinnacle of language design (or even a complete implementation of his ideas). He has said in

Regarding Smalltalk, I don't think Alan Kay has ever felt it was a pinnacle of language design (or even a complete implementation of his ideas). He has said in several talks that while Smalltalk was a PARC project it saw many re-imaginings, but once it went out into the world it basically was frozen and hasn't changed since 1976. Here's a good history of Smalltalk - http://worrydream.com/EarlyHistoryOfSmalltalk/ http://worrydream.com/EarlyHistoryOfSmalltalk/.