&gt; It&#x27;s not a half-joke, it&#x27;s a fact.<p>Smalltalk advocates never fail to entertain.<p>Java has HotSpot, IDE&#x27;s that actually perform automatic refactoring (Smalltalk&#x27;s IDE&#x27;s are naturally limited because the language is dynamically typed), the library ecosystem, sheer speed, standard libraries, debuggers that actually work, etc...<p>Smalltalk never succeeded for a good reason. It was a fantastic innovation back in its time but it never turned into a viable development ecosystem.