Ruby and Its Neighbors: Smalltalk
17 days ago
- #Programming Languages
- #Ruby
- #Object-Oriented Programming
- Ruby was influenced by Smalltalk, particularly in its object model where everything is an object.
- Smalltalk originated from Xerox PARC and evolved through versions like Smalltalk-80.
- Smalltalk was commercially significant in the 80s and 90s, used in industries like aviation and payroll systems.
- Smalltalk's development environment is distinct from Unix-influenced languages, being more of its own operating system.
- Smalltalk's syntax is simple, with everything being an object and every expression a message.
- Smalltalk's environment includes features like Workspace and Browser for coding, with deep system access.
- Smalltalk's debugging and testing capabilities are highly interactive and integrated.
- Smalltalk's decline was partly due to integration challenges with Unix-based systems and its image-based model.
- Ruby adopted Smalltalk's object-oriented principles but with a syntax familiar to C/Perl/Java programmers.
- The author's coding style in Ruby is influenced by Smalltalk's encouragement of small, focused classes.