On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:34 AM Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormcruz@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry, I mean how so are Smalltalk systems less compatible than web browsers are?

Different dialects have different features (e.g. Namespaces, Traits),
syntax, image format...

Smalltalk is a concept, with Smalltalk-80 as the canonical reference,
not even a specification, because ANSI Smalltalk was the closest thing
to a standard (Like ECMA TS39 is for JavaScript), but it was DoA.

> This means between different distributions of Smalltalk (VA, Squeak, Pharo...)? Same code are not as compatible between different Smalltalks distribution as a web application is between different browsers? How so? Why?

Because of history for the most part.
Smalltalk comes from a pre-opensource era, where commercial vendors
were the norm, and competition was not collaborative as it might be
now.

Each one took its own path and merging everything back is non-viable,
both for technical and commercial reasons.

When/if smalltalk grows to a web scale, then the need for standards
and constraint will arise.

Regards!

Esteban A. Maringolo