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 doesnât 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:
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.
Iâd 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 - Iâd 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 didnât happen in a day , and itâs still happening now as we read this, and the job is still not done.
But in a way Iâm 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 <david@totallyobjects.com> wrote:
Eric Clayberg - John OâKeefe??
On 25 Jul 2021, at 09:33, Richard Sargent <rsargent@5x5.on.ca> wrote:
Dave Thomas of OTI probably ranks in your list.
On July 24, 2021 3:44:40 PM PDT, horrido.hobbies@gmail.com wrote:
Iâm looking for a list of individuals who have contributed greatly to the advancement of Smalltalk, post Xerox PARC period (1972-1980). By advancement, I donât 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.
Iâm not that familiar with the deep history of Smalltalk, so Iâm looking for more nominations.
Thanks.
-- Russ Whaley whaley.russ@gmail.com