On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:34 AM Vitor Medina Cruz <vitormc...@gmail.com> wrote: > Sorry, I mean how so are Smalltalk systems less compatible than web browsers > are?
Different dialects have different features (e.g. Namespaces, Traits), syntax, image format... Smalltalk is a concept, with Smalltalk-80 as the canonical reference, not even a specification, because ANSI Smalltalk was the closest thing to a standard (Like ECMA TS39 is for JavaScript), but it was DoA. > This means between different distributions of Smalltalk (VA, Squeak, > Pharo...)? Same code are not as compatible between different Smalltalks > distribution as a web application is between different browsers? How so? Why? Because of history for the most part. Smalltalk comes from a pre-opensource era, where commercial vendors were the norm, and competition was not collaborative as it might be now. Each one took its own path and merging everything back is non-viable, both for technical and commercial reasons. When/if smalltalk grows to a web scale, then the need for standards and constraint will arise. Regards! Esteban A. Maringolo
