Little Smalltalk
Encyclopedia
Little Smalltalk is a non-standard dialect of the Smalltalk
programming language
invented by Timothy Budd
. It was originally described in the book: "A Little Smalltalk", Timothy Budd, Addison-Wesley
, 1987, ISBN 0-201-10698-1.
The Little Smalltalk system was the first Smalltalk interpreter produced outside of Xerox PARC
. Although it lacked many of the features of the original Smalltalk-80 system, it helped popularize the ideas of object-oriented programming
, virtual machine
s, and bytecode
interpreters
. Timothy Budd later rewrote Little Smalltalk in Java
, and distributes it as the SmallWorld system.
The original releases are under a variety of licenses. They are now maintained by Danny Reinhold via the Little Smalltalk project. Recently work on a new major version has begun. This differs from earlier releases by providing support for graphical applications, a foreign function interface, and numerous integrated tools.
Smalltalk
Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist...
programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
invented by Timothy Budd
Timothy Budd
Timothy Budd is an associate professor of computer science at Oregon State University. He is the author of more than a dozen books on object-oriented programming, data structures, and Leda, a multi-paradigm programming language, some of which are published in multiple languages...
. It was originally described in the book: "A Little Smalltalk", Timothy Budd, Addison-Wesley
Addison-Wesley
Addison-Wesley was a book publisher in Boston, Massachusetts, best known for its textbooks and computer literature. As well as publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributed its technical titles through the Safari Books Online e-reference service...
, 1987, ISBN 0-201-10698-1.
The Little Smalltalk system was the first Smalltalk interpreter produced outside of Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
. Although it lacked many of the features of the original Smalltalk-80 system, it helped popularize the ideas of object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
, virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
s, and bytecode
Bytecode
Bytecode, also known as p-code , is a term which has been used to denote various forms of instruction sets designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter as well as being suitable for further compilation into machine code...
interpreters
Interpreter (computing)
In computer science, an interpreter normally means a computer program that executes, i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming language...
. Timothy Budd later rewrote Little Smalltalk in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, and distributes it as the SmallWorld system.
The original releases are under a variety of licenses. They are now maintained by Danny Reinhold via the Little Smalltalk project. Recently work on a new major version has begun. This differs from earlier releases by providing support for graphical applications, a foreign function interface, and numerous integrated tools.
Licenses, copyright
- Version 1 - Must attribute original source and keep copyright notice in source files
- Version 2 - Public Domain
- Version 3 - Public Domain
- Version 4 - Free for non-commercial use
- Version 5 - Released under an MIT style license