https://www.righto.com/2017/10/the-xerox-alto-smalltalk-and-rewriting.html
We succeeded in running the Smalltalk-76 language on our vintage Xerox Alto; this blog post gives a quick overview of the Smalltalk environment. One unusual feature of Smalltalk is you can view and modify the system's code while the system is running. I demonstrate this by modifying the scrollbar code on a running system.
Smalltalk is a highly-influential programming language and environment that introduced the term "object-oriented programming" and was the ancestor of modern object-oriented languages. The Alto's Smalltalk environment is also notable for its creation of the graphical user interface with the desktop metaphor, icons, scrollbars, overlapping windows, popup menus and so forth. When Steve Jobs famously visited Xerox PARC, the Smalltalk GUI inspired him on how the Lisa and Macintosh should work.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Thursday June 12, @04:45PM
I hold Smalltalk in rather high esteem, though it is somewhat undervalued by FOSS commoners. Probably for political reasons.
Not only it's cute, simple and easy to learn, but it is a fundamental technology for weapons building by established MIC, especially in European industrial corporations. You know, secrets.
There is also an influential public implementation maintained mostly by INRIA, France.
https://pharo.org/features [pharo.org]
I consider this model of programming may become even more practical for using LLM AIs for writing code. It is possible to do smart program in Smalltalk which adapt itself (as a client using LLM/AI prompts) to changed circumstances and environments. Self-modifying robots, for example.
I admit, this is more elegant than using assembly directly for such purpose, though more dependable.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 12, @05:23PM
Erlang is another noteworthy language with the ability to hot modify code. This has to do with its origins in telecom (The name is short for Ericson Language). In those environments, the ability to change the way the system works while it's still running is important. You don't want, for example, to disconnect everybody in an area code while rolling out a tweak to enhanced 911. You definitely don't want to re-boot 911 calls in progress!