Technically, it should be possible to build a Pharo / Squeak environment in a dynamic language like Python or Ruby. I generally see it as more a cultural issue

Technically, it should be possible to build a Pharo / Squeak environment in a dynamic language like Python or Ruby. I generally see it as more a cultural issue. Pharo (and Smalltalks in general) are very productive environments, but they live on the concept of live objects (Smalltalk in the form of an image-based development environment). Given the love of text editors and Unix-style file development, I doubt there would be a move in that direction.