@MyLittleMetroid The back story behind SmallTalk is fascinating too. I'm not at a laptop to dig it up presently, but it was done almost as a dare.

My crude summary: SmallTalk was created essentially to prove a point that a powerful program could be implemented in approximately a page of code.

Albeit, it grew from that original proof of concept.

If you ever have an opportunity to visit DynamicLand in Oakland, it embodies a similar ethos. No surprise, Alan Kay was one of the individuals behind that research project.

They have a section where the operating code is all printed out on a board and the core kernel again: is basically just a page of code.

Albeit, the underlying complexity (implemented atop Lua, which is atop a bunch of other stuff) is obfuscated in that presentation, but: it's a welcome obfuscation. It allows the users to keep things simple and powerful and intuitive and elegant. It's a fascinating brainstorming work shop. Essentially making prototyping powerfully interactive systems as superficially simplistic as child's play in a preschool.

After visiting it, from my vantage at least: it became painfully clear both how far ahead visionaries such as Alan Kay and his collaborators are, and how far behind almost everything else in the field remains.

@exchgr