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On 6/23/2024 5:19 AM, Jaromir Matas via Cuis-dev wrote:<br>
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<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style=""><span>I'm not sure I
understand the part about "knowledge" though: "Write,
describe, communicate knowledge" - what does it mean
exactly? Is it about Smalltalk as a language? The
language itself is not that different from other
(high-level) languages. A good language certainly is a
great help to formulate things but it's still a
"programming language". </span><span>I guess there more
to it I didn't get :) </span></div>
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<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style=""><span>Or is it about the
whole concept including the live "OS-like" environment?
But where the "writing knowledge" fits in?</span></div>
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</span></div>
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<br>
There are only some many things that can be said in an hour.<br>
<br>
There are several links at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/blob/master/Documentation/AboutCuis.md#the-philosophy-behind-cuis">https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/blob/master/Documentation/AboutCuis.md#the-philosophy-behind-cuis</a>
. Have you read them? Please do.<br>
<br>
And, as I said at the start of the podcast, Smalltalk is an
attitude. If you are a programmer, wanting to solve some problem
with code, then Smalltalk is a good programming language. But if you
want to explore a field, understand, and document your journey of
discovery and invention, you could use pencil and paper. Or perhaps
Jupyter Notebooks. Or Smalltalk. If you use Smalltalk this way, it
is way more than a programming system.<br>
<br>
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<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style="">Other question -
Smalltalk was originally supposed to be the universal
environment above the hardware level. Everything below the
VM is the hardware (a machine language), everything above
the VM is Smalltalk (the UI, apps...). Even the VM is
written in a simplified Smalltalk (Slang); what was
supposed to be the role of C - to stay as an intermediary
between the Smalltalk level and the hardware or was (is?)
it supposed to be eliminated somehow eventually?</div>
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<br>
In my opinion, "Design Principles Behind Smalltalk" is the canon
here. C had no role originally, only much later. And its only role
is to be a useful implementation language for VMs. Nothing special.<br>
<br>
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<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style="">And one more note about
"easy to use, intuitive, for children" - this refers to
the DynaBook concept, right? Smalltalk as a language is a
lot of things but certainly not those things :) Simple
syntax doesn't mean simplicity but it thank god it saves
me from remembering tons of syntactic rules :) Anyway,
many thanks for explaining the DynaBook concept!</div>
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</div>
<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style="">Thanks again for the
great talk!</div>
<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style="">best,</div>
<div id="x405daaafacbd4dc" style="">Jaromir</div>
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<br>
Yes. Smalltalk was started as the "software half" of a Dynabook.
You'd read about the history, starting from Smalltalk-72, its
objectives and the experiences done by the Parc Learning Research
Group. And what happened after that, how they did Smalltalk-80, and
to what extent focus was changed. Same with the developments
described in the Green Book, and later commercial Smalltalks. How /
why focus changed? What happened with "for children"? Out of where
did Etoys, Scratch, and the whole world of tile programming came to
be?<br>
<br>
I think it is best to read what the people who did all this wrote.
For instance, start with
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/blob/master/Documentation/Philosophical/OnMakingDynabooksReal.md">https://github.com/Cuis-Smalltalk/Cuis-Smalltalk-Dev/blob/master/Documentation/Philosophical/OnMakingDynabooksReal.md</a>
. Yes, the stuff in the Cuis repo is there for a reason.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Juan Vuletich
cuis.st
github.com/jvuletich
researchgate.net/profile/Juan-Vuletich
independent.academia.edu/JuanVuletich
patents.justia.com/inventor/juan-manuel-vuletich
linkedin.com/in/juan-vuletich-75611b3
twitter.com/JuanVuletich</pre>
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