after a nuclear war, the remaining people will probably not be able to spin up a modern operating system on their improvised chips. How do you build a simple, reliable, legacy-free OS from scratch? What ideas 💡 and techniques should be passed down to those people?
If we think hard enough about this, I think we’ll agree that closed-source systems are basically designed to be almost impossible for people outside the sponsoring organization to reproduce (for an example, consider [ReactOS](https://reactos.org/), which launched as [a project to produce a system compatible with Windows 95](https://reactos.org/wiki/FreeWin95) and [then changed to focus on Windows NT](https://reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS/History), and after more than 25 years, is still not capable of being a daily use system.
But we may also determine that most open-source systems are likewise not designed in such a way that reconstruction is viable. The Linux kernel is *huge* these days.
Additionally, in my opinion, they’d probably want to use programming languages designed for readability, ease of learning, and error-reduction first (that is, more like #COBOL than #C, more like #Java than #CPlusPlus, more like !Smalltalk and #Lisp / #Scheme than #Perl / #Raku and #JavaScript) and then performance and low-level access.
I think it is a mistake to assume that one could start with a modern version of #gcc or #llvm or #msvc … because it is not a given that the software itself and someone who knew how to use it (and update, modify, and adapt it) would still exist.
> It is a fully capable virtual machine implemented in pure JavaScript running unmodified Squeak images.
Oh! I assumed wasm, but apparently no.
> you can drop a Squeak image from your computer into the Launcher page, or construct a URL to have it run an image from your web server. Or build your own web app, perhaps using the JavaScript bridge.
A couple of things I've heard !Smalltalk people say killed their market:
1. Smalltalk's image-based system didn't mesh well with OS filesystems;
2. #Smalltalk vendor turmoil and their high pricing.
(I wasn't even aware of the language's existence until the late #1990s. I took numerous programming courses over the years, but I never heard ST mentioned until another student mentioned it in a #Java course. )
CC: @clacke@libranet.de
RT @npapoylias@twitter.com #LANDS, Day18, Captain's Log: The entire #Smalltalk grammar decomposed into GrammarTraits of MOG rules ! The parser is assembled the same way using ASL. Why ?? Re-use parts of the #Pharo grammar in your own projects and easily evolve your language, including @pharoproject@twitter.com itself! https://t.co/XpBCWUJ1iV
RT @npapoylias@twitter.com #LANDS, Day17, Captain's Log: #Smalltalk msg-sends as a separate GrammarTrait ! Notice that <expression> here is a grammatical requirement, that can have different concrete implementations in different language compositions ! Just plug-n-play ;) with @pharoproject@twitter.com inside https://t.co/aNUO6k3Jct
RT @MartinezPeck@twitter.com OS virtualization (#VMWare, #VirtualBox, etc) started to use the concept of "image" and people got it. Linux containers, #Docker, etc continue that pattern and people still get it. Why is then so difficult for devs to understand what a #Smalltalk image is?
RT @InriaLearnLab@twitter.com En menos de un mes comienza el #MoocPharo @pharoproject@twitter.com en la plataforma @FunMooc.@twitter.com Todos los videos estan subtitulados en castellano. No esperes más! Únete a nosotros: https://t.co/KDilV1Yzfz y comparte a tus allegados : https://t.co/L5UkLWLFHe#Pharo#oop#Smalltalk
RT @MartinezPeck@twitter.com @RustProofLabs@twitter.com @Raspberry_Pi@twitter.com @PostgreSQL@twitter.com Nice! We saw a similar cluster for #Smalltalk#Pharo at @CampSmalltalkNA.@twitter.com I loved it! Would like to experiment soon with #Docker compose, #VASmalltalk and #MQTThttps://t.co/Axj7pUGR3P
RT @iterex@twitter.com Looking forward to #PharoDayshttps://t.co/FHy979jWsr conference tomorrow. Even if you aren’t a #Smalltalk programmer, I love the ideas and techniques from this community. I will present our cool integration with @exercism_io@twitter.com and how we can help people learn.
RT @juldelplanque@twitter.com Python3Generator v1.2.0 for @pharoproject@twitter.com is out thanks to the work of @ObjectProfile@twitter.com on Python3Bridge which got integrated into Python3Generator. Now provide support for Python lambdas and tuples. See https://t.co/fkJSUA4rgb#pharo#smalltalk
RT @umejava@twitter.com sendgrid-smalltalk now supports Dynamic Templates and Personalizations. Enjoy sending personalized e-mails by using handlebars templates with a few smalltalk message sends! #sendgrid#pharo#smalltalk https://t.co/UVBGkOU5y8