Isn’t this the wrong question to ask? I’m assuming this is to do with Smalltalk’s 50th anniversary, and of course we are grateful to those early pioneers who did lots of work in the field 20-30 years ago but to me that’s the old history and while it’s interesting to call out, it doesn’t shed life on the day to day energy we have today - whst keeps Smalltalk alive and current.
I’d like to nominate the Pharo community - being brave enough to fork when it was felt that doing something different was interesting enough to take the flack for it. But more than this, so many people have continued to contribute - teach, fix, pioneer etc. Particularly when there are so many other languages and movements you can follow - continuing the vision of a simple, malleable system that everyone can understand and fix is commendable. If you really want a name - I’d say Stephan Ducasse and Marcus Denker - I heard them stand up at Esug 2007 (Lugano) and really call out a vision for a malleable environment that was Smalltalk inspired but would let them properly experiment with new language ideas (I recall in particular the reference to reified inst var slots to let them manipulate programs more easily when experimenting). This was possibly the foreshadow to Pharo, and it took about 10 years of incremental improvements to achieve that exciting 2007 vision that I recall painted at the time. It certainly didn’t happen in a day , and it’s still happening now as we read this, and the job is still not done. But in a way I’m kind of reluctant to name, names as so many people have piled in around that community vision to make something that will continue to live and experiment. But to Stephan/Marcus and everyone else - hats off to you for creating something that is fun and productive to use, but more importantly is inspiring enough to contribute to. Tim > On 25 Jul 2021, at 11:00, Clacton Server <da...@totallyobjects.com> wrote: > > Eric Clayberg - John O’Keefe?? > >> On 25 Jul 2021, at 09:33, Richard Sargent <rsarg...@5x5.on.ca> wrote: >> >> Dave Thomas of OTI probably ranks in your list. >> >>> On July 24, 2021 3:44:40 PM PDT, horrido.hobb...@gmail.com wrote: >>> I’m looking for a list of individuals who have contributed greatly to the >>> advancement of Smalltalk, post Xerox PARC period (1972-1980). By >>> advancement, I don’t only mean on a technical basis but on an educational >>> or public awareness basis (this could include books, podcasts, talk >>> circuit, video instruction, etc.). Any basis that has made Smalltalk a >>> success in the marketplace (including commercialization). >>> >>> I posted this question on LinkedIn and got one useful response: the late >>> James Robertson. >>> >>> My personal nomination is Kent Beck. >>> >>> I’m not that familiar with the deep history of Smalltalk, so I’m looking >>> for more nominations. >>> >>> Thanks. >>> >
