Smalltalk has been, without doubt, the most influential of all object-oriented programming languages. Originally meant as an easy-to-use programming language for the Dynabook (a laptop avant-la-lettre developed in 1972 at Xerox Parc), it has developed into a powerful general purpose programming language (which has stabilized in Smalltalk-80) that runs on many platforms. From the start, an interactive programming environment has been an integral part of the language implementation. Later implementations also include support for the interactive construction of user interfaces.

Smalltalk -- a radical change in programming


  1972  Dynabook -- Alan Kay
  1976  SmallTalk76
  1980  SmallTalk80
  1990  ObjectWorks/SmallTalk -- VisualWorks

Design principles -- rapid prototyping

uniform object model -- control
dynamic typing -- flexible
standard libraries -- functionality

slide: The language Smalltalk

Influenced by the ideas of objects and classes embodied in Simula, the design philosophy underlying Smalltalk clearly reflects the desire to effect nothing less than a radical change in programming practice. Characteristic for the design of Smalltalk is a uniform object model (which is even used to support common control constructs), dynamic typing (which accounts for much of the flexibility of Smalltalk) and a sizeable collection of standard library classes (providing the functionality necessary to build complex applications). Smalltalk has successfully been used, in particular, for rapid prototyping.