[Cuis-dev] Lynn Conway (1938-2024) [was: change image in ImageMorph]

[kirtai+st at gmail.com]

On 14/06/2024 11:15, Boris Shingarov via Cuis-dev wrote:
> What I *am* trying to say, is, Alan Kay and others at PARC gave us this
> priceless gift of Smalltalk; and to repay them for this gift, uncritical
> worshipping would be the worst way.  And to blindly accept the wholesale
> design of Smalltalk-80 "just because that's the system the Great Fathers
> built", cargo-cult-science-style, would be diametrically opposite to the
> spirit of Smalltalk (and I am sure would leave Alan Kay very unhappy).
> To just copy Dan Ingalls' toys [of the 1970s], is NOT to be doing
> Smalltalk.  This is why I am trying to build my own Smalltalk [of the
> 2020s], and one fundamental prerequisite is to clearly separate what is
> Smalltalk from what were design decisions dictated by the limitations
> of the 1970s, when we are looking at the artifact we are holding in our
> hands (i.e. Smalltalk-80 system).

I've recently been playing with ST-76/78/LST to see what other paths 
could be taken.

e.g. One thing I realised is that Metaclasses are just a special case of 
instance specific behaviour limited to Class objects. Full support for 
instance specific behaviour would render them unnecessary.

I'm also reminded of Dan Ingall's remark that he thought about making 
ST-80 prototype based.

Alas my skills limit how far I can go.