Farewell to an American Icon Who “Got” Smalltalk

Farewell to an American Icon who “got” Smalltalk.

Although Steve Jobs had been battling cancer for a long period of time, it was still a shock to read of his passing. 

Steve Jobs “got” Smalltalk—he understood the impact of the work done at Xerox Parc.  His early work resulting in “Lisa” was done in Smalltalk.  He brought the GUI work originally done in Smalltalk to the masses.

More importantly, I think Steve Jobs understood the bigger picture of what the Smalltalk research work was all about—making computers easy to use by anyone.  You can see this theme in Apple products, be it the Mac, iPods or iPhones.  They are simple, easy and practical to use.  As many of you know, making something simple and obvious is usually a lot of very hard work, and it only looks simple and obvious when you get the right result.

Steve Jobs had an incredibly unique and amazing life story.  His work reached millions and raised the bar for products he touched.  He will be missed. RIP Steve Jobs.

– Arden Thomas, Cincom Smalltalk Product Manager