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Most of Alan Kay’s writings on that topic can be reduced to something along the lines of “I want things to be nice and problem-free. I have a vague feeling that
by layer8 2y ago
Most of Alan Kay’s writings on that topic can be reduced to something along the lines of “I want things to be nice and problem-free. I have a vague feeling that there is a methodology called ‘OOP’ and ‘messaging’ that would achieve that. All systems that claim to be OOP that are not nice and problem-free are obviously missing the point.”
- fidotron 2y agoThe problem with this is he led teams that built systems that proved his point.
- layer8 2y agoThey built systems, but I disagree that those proved his point. It’s not even clear what precisely his point is and how you would evaluate success or failure for it. Regarding Smalltalk, there are conceptual reasons why it failed, some of which are mentioned in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10071681 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10071681
- kragen 2y agoit failed? today's most popular programming languages are about half smalltalk derivatives (python, js, java, c#, and vb.net, but not c++, c, golang, sql, and fortran), apple is the world's most important computer manufacturer, wimp guis still dominate on computers that have keyboards, every web browser includes an ide with an object inspector, and virtually all programming is done in ides that doesn't sound like failure to me
- bitwize 2y agoThe royalties on the laser printer alone earned Xerox back PARC's entire expenses 200 times over but PaRc FaIlEd BeCaUsE xErOx DiDn'T kNoW hOw To mOnEtIzE tHeIr InVeNtIoNs.
- igouy 2y ago> some of which are mentioned in this thread Tell us which three you regard as most important; and which of the 61 comments in that thread demonstrate most clearly that they are important failings.
- igouy 2y agoFor example ? (And which point was proved.)