The Early History of Smalltalk Alive
The Early History of Smalltalk
KindPaper
Published1993
StatusAlive
AuthorsAlan Kay
Sourceworrydream.com ↗
Kay's HOPL-II retrospective — what Smalltalk was actually for (children, media, the Dynabook) versus what the industry extracted (objects). The corrective to twenty years of OOP mythology.
1960198020002020
Presented at HOPL-II in 1993, Kay's account traces Smalltalk from KiddiKomp through -71, -72, -76, -80 — messages, not objects, as the core idea ('the big idea is messaging'), with objects as biological cells sharing a network.
Kay was explicit that the industry took the wrong half: 'I'm sorry that I long ago coined the term objects for this topic because it gets many people to focus on the lesser idea.' The paper is essential reading for understanding what OOP was meant to be — and isn't.