With very few exceptions, no important programming language ever âdies.â Even APL and Forth are still in use today, if only in a small way (including their derivatives like J and Factor). But from the perspective of the programming community at large, if a programming language no longer has a large user base, itâs effectively dead. This may not be fair but there you have it. We may argue that it doesnât matter. If Smalltalk serves a small community well, thatâs the important thing. I take a broader perspective. We live in a technological world where software development productivity is a serious bottleneck. Smalltalk has the potential to greatly alleviate this bottleneck. Cutting development time in half (or better) matters a lot. This, I believe, is what we must fight for. We may fail. Indeed, we *probably* *will fail*. But if we donât try, we definitely will fail. Cheers,\ Richard Lorenzo wrote:
You are absolutely right!
Lorenzo
\-----Messaggio originale----- Da: Esteban Maringolo \[mailto:emaringolo@gmail.com\] Inviato: domenica 25 luglio 2021 17:54 A: Any question about pharo is welcome [pharo-users@lists.pharo.org](mailto:pharo-users@lists.pharo.org) Oggetto: \[Pharo-users\] Re: The Greatest Contributors to Smalltalk since 1980
On Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 11:31 AM Tim Mackinnon [tim@testit.works](mailto:tim@testit.works) wrote:
Isnât this the wrong question to ask? Iâm assuming this is to do with Smalltalkâs 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 thatâs the old history and while itâs interesting to call out, it doesnât shed life on the day to day energy we have today - whst keeps Smalltalk alive and current.
Hi share the view, it's the wrong question, and it pursues that "hero worshipping" culture that is already dead (or at least outdated) since a long time ago.
Additionally, I don't share the "keeping Smalltalk alive" expression, as if dying was its inevitable outcome. I haven't heard "keeping LISP alive" (and I don't call LISP as dead either). It would be self-deceiving to call ourselves mainstream, but that doesn't mean we're doomed somehow.
So in 50 years we should celebrate the half-century, remember the history, look at what we did "wrong", and focus on looking forward, because "the best way to predict the future is to invent it" ;-)
Regards!
Esteban A. Maringolo