The Early History of Smalltalk
Alan Kay reflects on the origins of Smalltalk and the conceptual shift toward personal computing in the 1960s. He discusses the transition from mainframe-centric models to interactive, user-friendly environments inspired by biological systems.
Why it matters
It provides foundational historical context for modern object-oriented programming and the evolution of user interface design.
Alan C. Kay Apple Computer kay2@apple.com.Internet#
Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. HOPL-II/4/93/MA, USA (c) 1993 ACM 0-89791-571-2/93/0004/0069...$1.50
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