I agree wholeheartedly with Tim. I first started with Smalltalk in the Digitalk days. My experience then and throughout my Smalltalk experience with VW, Squeak, etc., I have never had a community that helped me learn and embrace Smalltalk like Pharo and the Pharo Community. To me, if I cannot be successful with the product, I doesn’t really matter how great it is and who is involved (again, to me). The Pharo community has been so helpful and responsive, I feel very successful with my Smalltalk projects - and while there have been many who have helped from the community, I most often lean on Stephan Ducasse and Esteban Lorenzano for their Pharo documentation (Pharo books), content, ideas and support.
Thanks! Russ On Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 10:31 AM 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. >> > > -- Russ Whaley whaley.r...@gmail.com
