I'm studying Smalltalk right now. It looks very similar to python (actually, the opposite, python is very similar to Smalltalk), so I was wondering, as a python enthusiast, if it's really worth for me to study it.
Apart from message passing, what are other notable conceptual differences between Smalltalk and python which could allow me to see new programming horizons ?
Smalltalk historically has had an amazing IDE built in. I have missed this IDE on many languages.
Smalltalk also has the lovely property that it is typically in a living system. You start up clean and start modifying things. This is basically an object persistent storage system. That being said, this is both good and bad. What you run is part of your system and part of what you ship. The system can be setup quite nicely before being distributed. The down side, is that the system has everything you run as part of what you ship. You need to be very careful packaging for redistribution.
Now, that being said, it has been a while since I have worked with Smalltalk (about 20 years). Yes, I know, fun times for those who do the math. Smalltalk is a nice language, fun to program in, fun to learn, but I have found it a little hard to ship things in.
Enjoy playing with it if you do. I have been playing with Python and loving it.
Jacob
Differences between Smalltalk and python?