Dear Bill, it wasn't my intention to rank any Smalltalk implementation atop of another. For a programming language the analogy of a zoo is not quite compelling - the analogy of a dialect on the other hand is natural. And - as American English is not superior to Oxford English (or the other way round) or to Australian, or Irish English, there are certainly English dialects that are considered the "main" ones.
All the best to all Smalltalkers! Helge Helge Nowak Cincom Smalltalk Technical Account Manager Cincom Systems GmbH & Co. oHG Humboldtstraße 3 60318 Frankfurt am Main GERMANY office mobile website email +49 89 89 66 44 94 +49 172 74 00 402 https://www.cincomsmalltalk.com [email protected] A standpoint is an intellectual horizon of radius zero. -- Albert Einstein Geschäftsführer/Managing Directors: Karl William Gilbank oHG mit Sitz/based in Frankfurt am Main (Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main HRA 50297) Pers. haftender Gesellschafter/Partner liable to unlimited extent: Cincom Systems Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH (Amtsgericht Königstein/Ts. HRB 5069) --- CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT --- This e-mail transmission contains information that is intended to be privileged and confidential. It is intended only for the addressee named above. If you receive this e-mail in error, please do not read, copy or disseminate it in any manner. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited, please reply to the message immediately by informing the sender that the message was misdirected. After replying, please erase it from your computer system. Your assistance in correcting this error is appreciated. -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: bill-auger <[email protected]> Gesendet: Montag, 5. Januar 2026 16:54 An: Nowak, Helge <[email protected]> Cc: Duke Normandin <[email protected]>; [email protected] Betreff: Re: noob to GNU Smalltalk CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Cincom's email system. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Thanks - If in doubt, contact the Service Desk at [email protected] or your local IT personnel. On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 08:49:36 +0000 Helge wrote: > GNU Smalltalk differs from the main Smalltalk dialects significantly and/but OTOH and IIRC, GNU Smalltalk is the nearest to the ANSI dialect, which is actually the stronger formalized concept of a standard - a standard has more of the character of "main-ness" than ordinary organic dialects if one takes "main" to be "the most standardized or interoperable" then GNU Smalltalk is actually the best match for a "main Smalltalk dialect"; so it would be remiss not to mention that perhaps ironic twist presumably, the quoted use of "main" is a measure of popularity (eg: number of installs) rather than of technical similarity or heritage, or the domain of some authority, or otherwise what people usually mean by "main-line" the smalltalks are best described a language zoo - none qualify or deserve such a badge of "main-ness", nor "de-facto", nor so on - a IRL zoo would not present one animal as the main animal, though some may be favorites of some or other visitors
