
Self – Fun Through Simplicity - rbanffy
https://selflanguage.org/
======
ncmncm
The core Self concepts washed up in Javascript.

The most influential thing about Self turned out to be the optimization
technique called "code splitting", where you identify a "happy path" and hoist
out all the expensive lookups along that path, with maybe just checks for
whether you are still on it. So, for example, you emit code for one loop that
just does fixed-size integers, and another one for all the other numeric
types. Then at runtime, the code first checks for an int32, and then (in
practice) always ends up in the fast one.

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Barrin92
I always loved the vision of systems such as Smalltalk or Self. Interacting
with software objects dynamically and having a system that is in a sense
'alive' seemed so cool to me, yet all the time later we're still sitting here
typing characters into text editors to make static programs. Always wonder
from time to time why interaction with programs from a developer standpoint
has virtually not progressed or changed.

~~~
tines
In some senses I think it has changed, into the modern web dev experience.
You've got a living program running, handling events on the DOM, etc. And
developer tools let you inspect and modify objects live, time travel in the
debugger, and more. The web I think is where all the mindshare has gone for
this type of programming.

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kencausey
OK, but why today?

Previously:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=selflanguage.org](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=selflanguage.org)

~~~
macintux
I believe it was mentioned during the thread about the commercial failure of
Smalltalk. I suspect this arose from that.

~~~
kencausey
OK. I assume you are referring to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329485](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329485)
which has also been posted before

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23301722](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23301722)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23402199](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23402199)

although not with the success of today's posting (based on comment count.)

~~~
macintux
That's the one. The title changed at some point.

