From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2007-03-16T06:10:00+09:00
Subject: Re: IDEA: Ruby "offline" CD / DVD

On 3/15/07, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/14/07, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb@cesmail.net> wrote:
> > I couldn't find a Smalltalk for the C-64 -- there may
> > have been one, but I never managed to get my hands on it.
>
> Probably not.  I'm not aware of any Smalltalk implementations for
> 8-bit machines.  Well then again maybe.  Digitalk's first product was
> a text based Smalltalk called Methods which ran on MS/DOS, I'm not
> sure whether or not it actually ran on an 8088 or if it required a
> PC/AT.  It was called Methods because they were concerned about
> trademark issues with Xerox. Their next product was Smalltalk/V, which
> had graphics support.  Alan Kay had seen Methods and convinced them
> that they HAD to call it Smalltalk.  (IIRC, Alan is related indirectly
> by marriage to one of the Digitalk founders, but that might be my
> senility kicking in).  Alan also gave them a  blurb for the back cover
> of the Smalltalk/V manual "Smalltalk/V is the Smalltalk I Use -- Alan
> Kay".
>
> Although Smalltalk/V might have run on an original PC class machine, I
> don't think that it did, I think that the V stood for Virtual as in
> virtual memory and that they required an 80286 and handled swapping
> themselves outside the OS (MS/DOS).  Then Smalltalk/V for PM came out
> which definitely required a 16-bit machine as it ran on OS/2, the DOS
> version got rebranded as Smalltalk/V DOS.
>
> Since Ed is reminiscing, I hope that you'll indulge me a bit.
>
> One of my jobs back in the late 1980s/early 1990s was as a technical
> liaison between IBM and Digitalk.  I just pulled down one of my
> treasured mementos from those days; a copy of the supplemental manual
> for release 1.3 of Smalltalk/V PM, autographed by the entire team, and
> given to me at the Digitalk Developers Conference.    Alan Kay was
> there where he gave a keynote.  Among the inscriptions is "To the
> least IBM-like IBMer I've ever met -- Happy OOPing - Alan Kay"

That is nice, can I have an autograph too ;)
>
>
> We had some conversations with the newly formed ParcPlace back in
> those days about also doing Smalltalk-80 for OS/2  but they had no
> interest in any platform with a word length smaller than 32-bits.
>
> > Yes, Smalltalk does have a place in the list. It's a wonderful language,
>
> And to an old Smalltalker there's quite a bit of evidence in Ruby that
> it was a pretty big influence on Matz.
>
Boy I get sentimental:

Smalltalk.new(  (%w{ Matz new: #language do: [ : ruby |  Transcript
show: '} << "Hi Alan" << %w{ ' ; cr . ] }).join(" ") )



> --
> Rick DeNatale
>
> My blog on Ruby
> http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
>
>

Cheers
Robert

-- 
You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
-- George Bernard Shaw