Missed out on something big

Ever get the feeling that you’ve missed out on something big? I never got to see Star Wars at the cinema. I missed out on the start of computers, the ASM, the BASIC hacking and what-not. I discovered most of my musical taste way after the bands were gone or going, so I never got to see them in show.

None of those are my fault, of course, because they were all before my time; in fact, most were at least a decade before me. That still doesn’t stop me from ocasionally getting the feeling that I missed out on something big.

One more. One that’s pertinent to our industry: Smalltalk.

Smalltalk is one of those languages, possibly the most prominent example, that has been idolised over time. It’s often touted as having an excellent programmer experience, properly object-oriented, the source of refactoring, great tools, and a solid virtual machine behind it. It’s one of those languages that people are proud to say they once worked with it. A language that people nosalgicly look back on. It’s also got an air of betamax about it (yeah, I missed that one too), people were sure it was better, but it still didn’t become mainstream.

“We Smalltalkers used to think the advantages of our language were so significant that it would take over the world. We had a huge productivity advantage over C coders. Then C++ came along and gave C coders just enough to let them improve their productivity and their ability to write larger more complex systems. It still wasn’t as good as Smalltalk, but it was better than C, and much more accessible to most programmers than Smalltalk.” - Josh Susser via Raganwald

So where am I going with this? Just like I can make myself feel a bit better by watching Star Wars on a large TV, or listening to the Rolling Stones live albums. I’d like to see what all the fuss was about with Smalltalk, by giving it a go.

I’m not sure where to start on this, or how long it’s going to take, or even when I’m going to do it; however, one day in the not too distant future I’m going to do some programming with Smalltalk.