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Thanks, Matt. Thanks everyone for coming to this last talk prior to the closing keynote. I hope everyone's revved up appropriately.
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I hope my laptop stops falling asleep. The topic of my talk today is Smalltalk and what we can learn from it.
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When I started looking at the talks being proposed for RubyConf this year, there were a lot of future-looking talks discussing how Ruby could improve. I thought, why not look at where Ruby came from? Smalltalk is a significant inspiration for Ruby.
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As Matt mentioned, my name is Sasha Gerrand. I'm a programmer working for BigCommerce. I'd like to dedicate my talk to Jim, as RubyConf, in particular, left a big impact on me when I was first learning Ruby.
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So, a timely question is: what is Smalltalk, anyway, and what relation does it have at a Ruby conference? Well, Smalltalk is very much a forebear of Ruby. It has had a very strong influence on it. Like Ruby, it's object-oriented, dynamically typed, interpreted, reflective, and strongly typed.
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Smalltalk was created in the late 60s and early 70s as part of a movement around human-computer symbiosis, moving away from punch cards to more interactive methods. It was created at the famed Xerox PARC by Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, Adele Goldberg, Ted Kaehler, Scott Wallace, and many others.
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Alan Kay is considered one of the forefathers of object-oriented programming and made significant contributions to modern windowing systems. Dan Ingalls implemented the first generations of Smalltalk under Alan's initial guidance, while Adele did substantial work on what were called design templates, which resemble what we know today as design patterns.
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So, how did Smalltalk get its name? There's a good quote from Alan about it. He mentioned that he called it Smalltalk because programming should be a matter of small talk, and children should learn to program in Smalltalk.
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His research group aimed to introduce people to programming in a new way, with Smalltalk designed for that goal. He also stated he chose the name Smalltalk because it was innocuous enough that if it achieved anything good, people would be pleasantly surprised.
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Unlike names like ALGOL, FORTRAN, or COBOL, Smalltalk sounded less intimidating. From the 60s to late 70s, various concepts that Alan was developing influenced by other languages like Logo were implemented very early at Xerox PARC.
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By 1980, they had a version ready for external companies for peer review. There's an anecdote about Steve Jobs touring Xerox PARC when he famously walked out with insights into windowing systems, mouse mechanics, and what we know as macOS today.
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Adele Goldberg infamously refused to demonstrate Smalltalk during Jobs' visit, which led to a substantial influence on the early work on macOS and the Laser Macintosh at that time. Unfortunately, after Smalltalk-80 was released, commercialization of software and development environments became a major trend.
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Smalltalk faced difficulties in the 90s as languages like Java were released for free, leading to fierce competition since providers like ParcPlace Systems were charging about $5,000 per seat for developers using Smalltalk. This made it hard to onboard new developers into the language.
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Luckily, Smalltalk's influence remained strong, inspiring people like Mats. Open-source versions such as Squeak have continued, and original Smalltalk developers have released their forks. These versions are freely available, with a newer command-line oriented version available.
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One limitation of Smalltalk is that it was primarily GUI-oriented, making it somewhat challenging to run from the command line. Reiterating the significance of the language itself, Smalltalk is often recognized as the first object-oriented language.
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Like Ruby, an object in Smalltalk is always an instance of a class. Classes serve as blueprints, defining behavior and properties of instances, with slight polymorphic behavior as subclasses can extend a superclass.
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In fact, all values in Smalltalk are objects, including nil and boolean values. However, Smalltalk is relatively limited compared to Ruby, but they share some similarities, such as that Smalltalk objects can hold state, receive messages, and send messages.
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Now, regarding syntax, Smalltalk's literal syntax has similarities to Ruby. However, it is slightly different when it comes to symbols. Smalltalk doesn't support regex, but it is quite flexible with respect to numeric representations, including binary and hexadecimal.
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Despite these differences, the array syntax in Smalltalk is not vastly different from Ruby's. One key difference between the two languages is that Smalltalk doesn't use commas to separate values.
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In terms of variable declarations, a notable distinction is that in Ruby, you can declare variables anywhere, while in Smalltalk, you need to declare the usage of variables. A common method of doing this in Smalltalk is to use pipes around your variable name.
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In the above example, single variable 'a' is being declared, followed below by variables 'a', 'b', and 'c'. For those who've worked in languages like Go, Smalltalk's variable assignment is more closely aligned with that.
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Ruby's syntax for variable assignment and equality comparisons is similar to that in Smalltalk. I'll stop dwelling on syntax now, as it may be a little dry, and we're nearing the conclusion of RubyConf.
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Many links will be provided at the end of my talk for anyone interested in learning to program in Smalltalk. I'll briefly recap some differences between Smalltalk and Ruby.
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Smalltalk itself is more than just a programming language. When developing in Smalltalk, you're working within a virtual machine where state management is critical, affecting how development is made.
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You have persistent state available for inspection at all times, allowing for real-time code changes. Imagine how beneficial it is to change method signatures or return values while actively programming.
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Additionally, debugging becomes easier as developers can access all information regarding program state and troubleshoot issues without needing to reproduce them after the fact.
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The core difference is that Smalltalk combines the language with the virtual machine --- it's not about editing code files and running them through an interpreter. Instead, developers are editing text directly inside the virtual machine.
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Smalltalk was the first integrated development environment (IDE) I encountered as a child. I remember being amazed when my dad took me to work, where an engineer demonstrated its capabilities.
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This environment included a code editor, class browser for inspecting messages in flight, a graphic library full of user interface components, and tools such as debuggers, profilers, and test runners.
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In conclusion, I want to touch on some semantic differences between Ruby and Smalltalk. Ruby incorporates mixed-in capabilities, allowing dynamic alterations.
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Smalltalk, however, relies more heavily on a static implementation without similar flexibility. In Ruby, you can add methods to objects dynamically; in Smalltalk, all methods reside within defined classes.
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Ruby allows for dynamic method addition, while in Smalltalk, method relocation is strictly class-oriented. Ruby provides more macros within class definitions, while Smalltalk lacks such features.
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Smalltalk implementations provide beneficial features like ordered collections, automatically maintaining sorted order of lists during mutations, whilst Ruby requires manual sorting each time.
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Through my exploration of Smalltalk, I've come to appreciate its unique advantages, particularly regarding its development environment. The class browser enables real-time application insight that Ruby's tools don't offer.
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The debugging capabilities in Smalltalk are particularly impressive. Had I grown up coding in Smalltalk, I feel I would have found it challenging to adapt to environments lacking such supportive features.
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I highly encourage everyone to check out the links I have at the end of this talk, which allow you to download and run Squeak or other modern Smalltalk implementations.
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Regex isn't supported in Smalltalk, but the built-in debugging and profiling tools are exceptional. The Smalltalk VM essentially functions as a light table, akin to modern interactive programming environments.
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As a Rubyist, these features would greatly enhance my development experience. I hope to see similar concepts in Ruby's ecosystem, particularly given that Light Table has focused more on other languages.
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In conclusion, thank you for your time. I hope you found my observations on Smalltalk enlightening. I'm open to any questions you may have.
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Thank you. What specifically do you like about the class browser? Could you explain that feature and others like the debugger and profiler?
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One great benefit of the class browser in Squeak is the ability to inspect code and objects in real-time. It allows developers to traverse a method tree, filter messages, and see their instances in action.
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The investment in runtime inspections and debugging tools available in Smalltalk greatly enhance its utility for developers. Every part of your codebase can be analyzed and optimized while it runs.
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With the introduction of questions about the visual aspects of Smalltalk, it's paramount to comprehend how images persist data throughout the programming lifecycle.
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Images within the Smalltalk VM save data at regular intervals, so if an application crashes, you can retrieve the most recent state, ensuring minimal loss of progress.
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Do note there's a continuous saving mechanism that protects most recent interactions. This significantly enhances developer confidence during their programming tasks.
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This assurance translates back into small talk, making it a unique experience during coding. Thank you all once again!
