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Extending Smalltalk
written by Peter William Lount
version 1, 20040920 4:57pm PDT
reversion 2, 20040921 9:18am PDT
reversion 3, 20050215 12:09pm PDT, added new link by Richard Demmers.

This article series looks at existing and future extentions to the Smalltalk language.

The last few years has seen an explosion in new Smalltalk versions many of which are creating variations of the base Smalltalk Language.

Our aim is to explore these variations and see which ones are the future of Smalltalk. Smalltalk.org is prepared to be a clearing house for existing and proposed enhancements to Smalltalk. One central place for all the materials on this important topic. Send in any and all related materials. Send in your proporsals, comments, desired objectives, goals and outcomes. Let the community know your, and your company's, point of view on any and all Smalltalk Language enhancements and extensions. Vendors and other version providers, let the community know your important point of view on the matter.

Articles in the Extending Smalltalk series:

The base standard for the Smalltalk language is really "Smalltalk-80". Unfortunately Smalltalk's syntax, object model and object class libraries forked early on with "Digitalk" Smalltalk and LittleSmalltalk. However there is now the the ANSI Smalltalk Standard.

Smalltalk isn't standing still. The fact is that various independent groups are evolving Smalltalk, so the language is evolving, and evolving in multiple directions. This is evident by explosion of versions of Smalltalk in recent years.

How to extend Smalltalk - in a standard way - beyond the base and ANSI standards? How do we, as a community, develop the next Smalltalk standard? That's a big question.

What do you think?

In Re: Extending Smalltalk Syntax Rich Demers wrote:

An issue we should also be discussing is HOW to go about deciding how Smalltalk should evolve -- for evolve it must. Too many good ideas get put forward only to be lost in the great bit-bucket of the Internet. There should at least be a way to record them in a central repository of possible changes, and a way subsequently evaluate them and discuss them for recommendation to the Smalltalk vendors.

Smalltalk.org is a central place that's willing to collect the possible changes and host the discussions.

In Generalized collection access and Smalltalk evolution Rich Demers wrote:

There has been an interesting discussion in the vwnc mailing list about generalized collection access, but it begs the question I keep asking but never get an answer to; namely, what is the process by which Smalltalk can evolve? In this case, it would be evolution of the core class libraries, but the larger question includes the syntax and semantics of the entire language.