You've decided to expand your horizons. You've been programming exclusively in Java (or C++, or Perl, or Ruby) for a while now. You're happy and productive, but you have this nagging feeling that you're solving problems by rote rather than thinking as creatively as you once did. Learning a new language, especially one that forces you to re-examine some of your notions about software development, may be just the ticket.
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Member since:2006-01-01
Lisp is the father of dynamic languages. Garbage collection and dynamic typing before Smalltalk ever existed.
Smalltalk actually received a fair amount of corporate funding. Heck, I was programming in VisualAge Smalltalk in 1995. It probably doesn't work out to be anything like what Java obtained marketing-wise, but Java was fortunate-enough to ride the Internet bubble while Smalltalk was falling out of favor.
I would that it is one of the two best programming languages not really used in the mainstream.
Dolphin Smalltalk is definitely quite slick.
The source code for the Strong Talk system was recently released by Sun.
Edited 2006-09-25 17:23
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2005-07-11
"Instantations now is selling VA/Smalltalk 7.0 (with prices exceeding $5000) but I don't know if they offer trial or free versions of VAST."
Thanks for the heads up, I didn't know that VA had survived the IBM end-of-support.
From their web page, it seems that VA7 is pretty much IBM VA 6.0.3, feature wise. Fortunately, I downloaded the free for non-commercial use image of VA before IBM pulled it. I think it is at 6.0.1 though.
It was funny to see Window Builder Pro still selling, albeit for Java now. That was my second ever GUI buidling tool, after Gupta SQL Windows which was in turn the first time I had ever done event-driven programming.
Ah, nostalgia! 
Member since:2006-01-18
Smalltalk hat enough corporate funding, Parcplace, Siemens IBM etc.. you name it, the reason why it went down was a lot of stupidty and political issues surrounding the ParcPlace digitalk fiasco in the mid 90s.
Also that the last norm was pushed around 92 did not help the language either, not we have lots of rather incompatible implementations lots of extensions, but no standard which is close to what .Net or Java have to offer.
Java did not win over Smalltalk due to better language design, it won, because Parcplace killed itself and with it the entire Smalltalk market in their own arrogance, and the rest was done by finally having one single language over lots of platforms with an extensive classlib which is standardized.
(One of the many reasons why java took over C++ in the server arena as well)
Member since:
2006-06-20
Smalltalk is the most underrated language of all time, altough it's the father of dynamic languages (garbage collection and dynamic typing in the 80's!). It's extremely powerful but so simple. If you've ever screamed at a Java or C++ debugging process, you should see Smalltalk.
Try SEASIDE, the Web toolkit for Smalltalk. It's hyperflexible (you can type and edit code while looking at your HTML/CSS rendering).
It's amazing.
It's a pity that Smalltalk didn't receive the corporate funding that Sun put on Java, which is one of the most horrible things I've seen in my life.
ALso try: Dolphin SMalltalk (www.object-arts.com)
Visualworks 7 (www.cincomsmalltalk.com)
Instantations now is selling VA/Smalltalk 7.0 (with prices exceeding $5000) but I don't know if they offer trial or free versions of VAST.