I forgot to mention in my answer - this should in no way detract from the visions of other projects some of which I’m less familiar with - Squeak, Cuis, GT, SqueakJS, Livey, Caffeine… I’m in awe of all of them…
And I think that’s my point - it’s the communities and the work they do to promote a live, simple, fun and feature rich coding experience that we should all celebrate. Tim > On 25 Jul 2021, at 16:30, Tim Mackinnon <tim@testit.works> wrote: > > Isn’t this the wrong question to ask? I’m assuming this is to do with > Smalltalk’s 50th anniversary, and of course we are grateful to those early > pioneers who did lots of work in the field 20-30 years ago but to me that’s > the old history and while it’s interesting to call out, it doesn’t shed life > on the day to day energy we have today - whst keeps Smalltalk alive and > current. > > I’d like to nominate the Pharo community - being brave enough to fork when it > was felt that doing something different was interesting enough to take the > flack for it. But more than this, so many people have continued to contribute > - teach, fix, pioneer etc. Particularly when there are so many other > languages and movements you can follow - continuing the vision of a simple, > malleable system that everyone can understand and fix is commendable. > > If you really want a name - I’d say Stephan Ducasse and Marcus Denker - I > heard them stand up at Esug 2007 (Lugano) and really call out a vision for a > malleable environment that was Smalltalk inspired but would let them properly > experiment with new language ideas (I recall in particular the reference to > reified inst var slots to let them manipulate programs more easily when > experimenting). This was possibly the foreshadow to Pharo, and it took about > 10 years of incremental improvements to achieve that exciting 2007 vision > that I recall painted at the time. It certainly didn’t happen in a day , and > it’s still happening now as we read this, and the job is still not done. > > But in a way I’m kind of reluctant to name, names as so many people have > piled in around that community vision to make something that will continue to > live and experiment. But to Stephan/Marcus and everyone else - hats off to > you for creating something that is fun and productive to use, but more > importantly is inspiring enough to contribute to. > > Tim > >> On 25 Jul 2021, at 11:00, Clacton Server <da...@totallyobjects.com> wrote: >> Eric Clayberg - John O’Keefe?? >> >>> On 25 Jul 2021, at 09:33, Richard Sargent <rsarg...@5x5.on.ca> wrote: >>> >>> Dave Thomas of OTI probably ranks in your list. >>> >>> On July 24, 2021 3:44:40 PM PDT, horrido.hobb...@gmail.com wrote: >>>> >>>> I’m looking for a list of individuals who have contributed greatly to the >>>> advancement of Smalltalk, post Xerox PARC period (1972-1980). By >>>> advancement, I don’t only mean on a technical basis but on an educational >>>> or public awareness basis (this could include books, podcasts, talk >>>> circuit, video instruction, etc.). Any basis that has made Smalltalk a >>>> success in the marketplace (including commercialization). >>>> >>>> I posted this question on LinkedIn and got one useful response: the late >>>> James Robertson. >>>> >>>> My personal nomination is Kent Beck. >>>> >>>> I’m not that familiar with the deep history of Smalltalk, so I’m looking >>>> for more nominations. >>>> >>>> Thanks.
