I would recommend Ruby, too. Even though I don't write large programs or webapps in Ruby, I use it to write the occasional script to glue different things toget

I would recommend Ruby, too. Even though I don't write large programs or webapps in Ruby, I use it to write the occasional script to glue different things together. I think that there's probably more (practical) benefit to be had with Ruby than Smalltalk or Self.