[OT] Is there a relationship between Xtalk languages and smalltalk?

[Dan Shafer]

As one of the Gray-Hairs around these parts -- and someone who has  
authored books on both xTalks and Smalltalk as well as coding far too  
many lines of both to be considered still sane -- I thought I'd take  
a stab at your question.

There is virtually no real connection between the two languages other  
than the fact that when Bill Atkinson and Dan Winkler were naming the  
scripting language in HyperCard, I'm sure they thought that the  
suffix "-talk" conveyed better what they were trying to do with this  
new artifact of computing than anything else they could come up with.  
(I think I remember Dan even telling me something like that once, but  
it's been eons in computer terms.)

There were, as I recall, a number of language dialects that ended  
with the same suffix. I seem to recall that SuperCard's language was  
called SuperTalk, for example. I'm sure there were others that escape  
my aging and over-crowded brain at the moment.

Thanks for affording me a brief trip down Memory Lane.

On May 19, 2005, at 6:32 AM, Lynch, Jonathan wrote:

> Reading about smalltalk and hypertalk on the web, it seems like  
> there is
> a connection, but I am not clear what the connection might be.
>
> Was hypercard inspired by smalltalk, or something like that?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Co-Chair
RevConWest '05
June 17-18, 2005, Monterey, California
http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit/RevConWest