Smalltalk
/SMAWL-tawk/ · noun · Development · Origin: 1972
Definitions
The language that defined object-oriented programming as we know it. Developed at Xerox PARC alongside the modern GUI, Smalltalk treats everything as an object — including numbers, classes, and the IDE itself. Its influence on Ruby, Objective-C, Java, and Python is profound.
In plain English: The programming language that invented the idea of object-oriented programming, where everything in the program is treated as a self-contained 'object.'
Example: In Smalltalk, even 'true' is an object — once you get that, you understand what object-oriented really means.
Origin Story
The language where everything is an object -- even numbers and booleans
Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, and Adele Goldberg created Smalltalk at Xerox PARC between 1969 and 1980. Kay envisioned a computer system so simple that children could use it, inspired by Seymour Papert's Logo and Simula's object concept.
Kay named it **Smalltalk** as a deliberate understatement -- he wanted a name that wouldn't overpromise. The idea was that the language should be casual and approachable, like "small talk" at a party. Everything in Smalltalk is an object, and all computation happens via message passing.
Smalltalk didn't just influence programming -- it invented the modern GUI. Windows, icons, menus, and the mouse-driven interface all came from the Smalltalk environment at PARC. Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979 and famously brought these ideas to the Macintosh.
Coined by: Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, Adele Goldberg
Context: Xerox PARC, 1969-1980
Fun fact: Alan Kay defined object-oriented programming, but he later said: 'I invented the term object-oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.' He envisioned objects as biological cells communicating through messages, not as data structures with methods.