Strongtalk

Strongtalk is a major re-thinking of the Smalltalk-80 language and system. While retaining the basic Smalltalk syntax and semantics, it contains a number of significant advances, including:

• Performance: It executes Smalltalk much faster than any other Smalltalk implementation, using an advanced inlining compiler based on type-feedback technology.

• Type System: It contains the first fully developed strong, static type system for Smalltalk (hence the name Strongtalk). The type system is both optional and incremental, and operates completely independently of the compiler technology (which means that normal untyped Smalltalk code runs just as fast as typed code). It also contains a re-designed, strongly-typed "Blue Book" class library.

The Strongtalk system was developed in secret in the mid-90's by a small startup company. Before the Strongtalk system could be released, the company was acquired by Sun Microsystems, Inc. to work on the Java� virtual machine. Development of Strongtalk was halted at that point, so very few people have ever had a chance to see the Strongtalk system in action.

Fortunately, Sun has recently graciously agreed to release the system as free, partially open-source software. It is not supported software, and is not intended for commercial use- the release is primarily to allow researchers and those interested in Smalltalk implementations to evaluate and learn from the technology.

The virtual machine is in the form of a Windows binary only, under a non-commercial-use license; however, the Smalltalk image is released with full source code under a generous Berkeley-style open source license. This means that full, open source is provided for a number of important areas of the system, including the typechecker, the strongly-typed "Blue Book" libraries, the glyph-based user interface, and the advanced programming environment.