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by AfterHIA 253 days ago
UNIX is for dorks. We needed a Smalltalk style, "everything is an object and you can talk to all objects" but thankfully we got Java and, "object oriented" C++. The Alto operating system was leaps and bounds ahead of the Mac and Windows 3.1 system and it took Steve Jobs a decade to realize, "oh shit we could have just made everything an object." Then we get WebObjects and the lousy IPod and everything is fascist history.

#next #never #forget #thieves
2 comments
pjmlp 252 days ago
I had a UNIX zealot phase back in the 1990's, until the university library opened my eyes to Xerox PARC world, tucked away at the back there were all the manuals and books about Smalltalk from Xerox, eventually I also did some assigments with Smalltalk/V, and found a way to learn about Interlisp and Mesa/Cedar as well.

My graduation project was porting a visualisation framework from Objective-C/NeXTSTEP to Windows.

At the time, my X setup was a mix of AfterStep or windowmaker, depending on the system I was at.

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mike_hearn 252 days ago
OK, go use Windows then, it's the dream architecture you always wanted ;)

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/com/com-tech...

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AfterHIA 251 days ago
Dichotomizing the world as either UNIX based or Windows is pretty myopic. I want the computer architecture Douglas Engelbart dreamed of. I want a realization of the ideas of Seymour Papert and Brenda Laurel.

We're still after 50 years using Xerox Alto clones fundamentally. What would a, "modern Alto" play like? What if we spent X,XXX,XXX's of dollars to create a, "in to the future time machine" like they did at PARC? What if the project had the high ethics of Bush and Engelbart as an operational paradigm?

...and yes Lisp is the best programming language. Suck it.

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