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RailsConf 09: Robert Martin, "What Killed Smalltalk Could K

O'Reilly

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  • Recommended by 7 people: 5 on Hacker News, 1 on Lobsters and 1 curated list.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2012 to 2024.
  • Presented by Robert C. Martin, software consultant and author
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

86K views17 years ago7 recommendations

Programming languagesHistory and cultureLanguage design and type systemsHistory of computingRuby

Robert C. Martin discusses the decline of Smalltalk and warns the Ruby community about how arrogance and isolation can kill a programming language.

Robert Martin (Object Mentor, Inc.) "What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too"

Why it's here

7 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended for its historical perspective on programming language communities and the cultural factors that influence their success or failure.

programming-talkscurated list on GitHubRecommends

Under “Ruby”

What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too 01:00:55 by **Robert Martin** (2009)

AlexFromBelgiumon Hacker News • Recommends

On “In which we plot an escape from the quagmire of equality (Clojure and Emacs)”

Thx for the responses. I just watched "What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too" link to this video pretty interesting

brudgerson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Some Functional Programmers Are Arrogant”

For some context on Martin's comments his talk on how arrogance effected Smalltalk is probably relevant: link to this video and probably worth watching if you enjoy Uncle Bob's soulful stylings and are interested in his thoughts about programming language communities.

duncanawoodson Hacker News • Recommends

On “Redline Smalltalk for the JVM”

After watching a few Alan Kay talks where he pines for Smalltalk, I happened to watch this Robert Martin talk "What killed Smalltalk could kill Ruby". link to this video The tldw reasons he gives for why Smalltalk died: - too easy to make a mess where adding complexity would be punished late. - arrogance - community isolated itself from the world and did not address common industry needs - commercial only - alternative free languages dominated

pjmlpon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Keep Ruby Weird Again [video]”

Quite interesting, maybe one should also check this older talk: Robert Martin, "What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby", 2009 link to this video

bayindirhon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Go runtime: 4 years later”

…all. You like Rust? Great, Go for it (unintended pun alert), but I think we need all languages from all paradigms and perspectives. I find this talk 0 very informative and useful while interacting with other languages and communities. I'm not sharing this with any insinuations towards you, but just find it generally perspective broadening. 0: link to this video - What Killed Smalltalk could Kill Ruby.…

bayindirhon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Rewrite the VP9 codec library in Rust”

> your arguments against Rust come off as biased. Yes, I'm pretty aware of this, and I keep this bias voluntarily, because Rust is generally touted (hyped?) as a Silver Bullet, and I'm wary of Silver Bullets. So, I want to highlight that fact. > Sorry if I came across as rude. No hard feelings. As I said, I'm not under delusion of a perfect life. I just said it. > I just find it slightly puzzling how your stance on it is kind of going up and down. :) I have a habit of mirroring the tone of the person I'm talking with. Combine it with the fact that English is not my native language, it's possible that "tone adjustment" is far from perfect. > it's been quite a while since I've seen Rust zealot…

inactive-useron Lobsters • Recommends

Robert Martin - "What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too" (2009)

mylittleponyon Hacker News • Mentions

On “What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project”

Having tried Ruby for a year, I have experimented this myself. With a strong OOP background, I can assert that it's not even an elite that enjoys ridiculing noobs. It reminded me of this: link to this video Also, just look at the top comment in that video. The irony.

brudgerson Hacker News • Mentions

On “Design Principles Behind Smalltalk (1981)”

…te outside of the "what language should I build my next project in" marketplace and outside the segment of professional software developers. Smalltalk was killed by its business models. Without runtime licensing, providing a REPL meant that every application would come with a free copy. Not providing a REPL meant knee-capping the application. 1: link to this video…

Ace17on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why is Smalltalk Dead?”

Too much dynamicity? Ward Cunningham: "What killed Smalltalk was it was just too easy to make a mess" (source: link to this video )

brudgerson Hacker News • Mentions

On “C is Manly, Python is for “n00bs””

First I was reminded of Uncle Bob's talk on programming language hubris: link to this video but as I went deeper thought about the effects of programming language tribalism, I was reminded of link it's reference to link and how this played out as a sound bite in US popular culture at the same time as the decline in women computer science enrollment began to decline. Being in the high school graduating cohort where the decline began, the decline of women in computing a subject I'm interested in. It's one of those subtle cultural/generational differences between me and my boy.

ksherlockon Hacker News • Mentions

On “What killed Haskell, could kill Rust, too”

"_As one might have guessed, this is not an essay. It's a transcript of the following talk by R. Martin with some substitutions made (SmallTalk -> Haskell, Ruby -> Rust, and others). You are free to make any conclusions from this._ What killed Smalltalk, could kill Ruby, too( link to this video )"

yakshaving_jgton Hacker News • Mentions

On “I've Misunderstood the Single Responsibility Principle”

Sure. Balls: link to this video Types: link I'll concede that I misremembered cajones as balls , but the sentiment is the same.

bayindirhon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Software development topics I've changed my mind on”

Let me try to explain it a bit more. From my experience, functional programmers come in two flavors. The ones who constantly nag others by telling them "everything you do is wrong", and "hey, come here, I want to show you something!". Unfortunately, the first camp is way more dominant than others. Again, from the same article, there's observation "People who care about the craft are rare. Cherish the who cares, meet the rest at where they are". This is very true. The problem is, the people in the first camp can't cater to either group. First group has strong opinions and want a solid (not hostile, solid) discussion about how they can improve and how that tool works, and the second group does…

bayindirhon Hacker News • Mentions

On “CERT is releasing six CVEs for serious security vulnerabilities in dnsmasq”

…s happy to discuss PLT and merits of programming languages with neutral parties, even in lively fashion, but when open-mindedness gets thrown out of the window, I do leave the room. These kinds of healthy discussions will benefit both parties. Hubris, ego, closed-mindedness and fanaticism won't. Related: What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby, Too: link to this video…