Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed programming language developed in the 1970s by Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, and others at Xerox PARC. Known for its pure object-oriented model, Smalltalk treats everything, from numbers to classes, as objects. This uniform approach to programming encourages a highly consistent and intuitive style of coding.
Smalltalk's interactive development environment, including tools like the image-based virtual machine, allows for rapid prototyping and live editing, making it a popular choice for exploratory programming and research. It introduced many foundational concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP) such as message passing, which has influenced later languages like Python, Ruby, and Objective-C.
Though Smalltalk is not as commonly used in modern software development, it remains a key part of the history of object-oriented programming and is still used in certain niches, particularly for educational purposes and legacy systems. Its emphasis on simplicity, purity in object-oriented design, and its powerful development environment make it a fascinating language for those interested in the origins and principles of OOP.