3 ms·

Why was Smalltalk code always written in Comic Sans?

• bobowzki 8y ago
  Comic Sans was released in 1994. I also wonder about their choice of typeface though...
  • forkerenok 8y ago
    My guess, first half-jokingly now actually real, that it could be a plea to users to not get too serious with it (at least yet).
• mprovost 8y ago
  "The Smalltalk font in the screenshots is Cream by Bob Flegal, based on a design by Alan Kay" Alan Kay: "Actually, Bob Flegal's challenge was to somehow make a script font that kind of looked slanted but was actually straight up. I though he succeeded really well with this design." (http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2004-March/074907.html http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2004-...) It was also the first system font used on the original Mac! (https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Font_Manager.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...)
• scroot 8y ago
  Remember: Smalltalk was invented at PARC where, among other things, they had a broad goal to create systems that didn't exist. GUIs for personal computing prior to this were purely terminal based, with standard monotype faces. These guys were interested in actually printing documents, making animations, music, all kinds of stuff. So they came up with the ability to use different typefaces and used them all over the place.