scroot

54 ms·

571.
by scroot 9y ago
Herein lies a dangerous assumption prominent in neoliberal thinking: that "building something for people" is only possible by making something that is inherently "profitable." Kay has spoken endlessly on the fact that PA
572.
by scroot 9y ago
Not just refugees. The way Alan Kay describes it, PARC was essentially in the spirit of ARPA, one if the last great efforts that could be said to come from that culture. Part of the reason, he claims, is that Bob Taylor (veteran of ARPA and
573.
by scroot 9y ago
In theory one could build a computer that runs Smalltalk at a fast speed.
574.
by scroot 9y ago
> The tooling ecosystem, the performance, the VM, the GC, the libraries, etc... None of that emerged from whole cloth in the beginning. It's the result of time and wide adoption. Java was released for free. Smalltalk wasn't.
575.
by scroot 9y ago
It's not the same. With a Smalltalk system, there isn't really an operating system. All activity we would normally ascribe to an OS is simply implement in the Smalltalk environment, using Smalltalk objects, running in a live image
576.
by scroot 9y ago
Part of the effect that the Web specifically has had over the past decade is to adjust the general personal computing public to the idea that programs and files are more ephemeral than they were, say, 10 years earlier. We don't really
577.
by scroot 9y ago
"These languages aren't "stuck" there, it's just that it takes time to optimize" Another thing is that we have CPU architecture that is optimized for a one size fits all system when it comes to personal computi
578.
by scroot 9y ago
Kay is fairly explicit in crediting Simula as an influence, even though he coined the term OO during the Parc era. One thing that's important to keep in mind is that Smalltalk was designed specifically with personal computing in mind,
579.
by scroot 9y ago
Here is one of the relevant portions of Kay's documentary, which was recorded years later: https://youtu.be/p2LZLYcu_JY?t=35m21s
580.
by scroot 9y ago
Yes. Not only that, but by observing the kids they iterated on different versions of Smalltalk. The approach there was quite different from what you see today. They built upon actual psychology and spent the money and time conducting studie
581.
by scroot 9y ago
I think a lot of the "standard" objects in Smalltalk-80 are very elegant. In particular, have a look at the implementations of Boolean, True, and False (it has been posted to HN before). Clever.
582.
by scroot 9y ago
Safe plan for sure. The whole damn thing is patched together with popsicle sticks and rubber cement.
583.
by scroot 9y ago
Every time I try to get into Seaside, I can't get past the mangling of URLs that takes place. Have they come up with some way around that?
584.
by scroot 9y ago
I also should mention that I only started getting into the Smalltalk stuff a year ago, and am by no means an expert. But reading about it and using it (Pharo mostly) really changed the way I think not only about programming, but computing m
585.
by scroot 9y ago
You should play around with Pharo if you have some free time. It's a completely different way of doing things (and a lot of fun). Indeed, what you've described of Delphi is not happening in a Smalltalk: there's no difference
586.
by scroot 9y ago
There is no "formal" system for events, but there are patterns and most Smalltalk systems follow. For example, Pharo makes use of an object called `Announcer`, which you then subclass to make your own announcements. It works simil
587.
by scroot 9y ago
And also #3.1: you program within the environment you are programming.
588.
by scroot 9y ago
If you ask on Quora there's a likelihood that Kay will personally respond. He seems to be active over there.
589.
by scroot 9y ago
Pharo has it's own UI, but can also run native OS UI windows (this feature is being improved). What you are seeing in the screenshot is indeed a web interface and a Seaside application appears to be hosting it, according to the descrip
590.
by scroot 9y ago
Exactly. Scientific American also highlighted a study of precisely that issue: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret...
591.
by scroot 9y ago
I know nothing about it. Can you link me to some good examples?
592.
by scroot 9y ago
I'm 100% with you. Been getting into Smalltalk over the past year. Bought all the books, played with Pharo/Squeak/Cuis, listened to a ton of Kay lectures. Let me know if you come across anything especially interesting.
593.
by scroot 9y ago
What do you mean re: lisp / smalltalk?