Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice
By Glenn Krasner (editor)
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1983
ISBN 0-201-11669-3

This collection of papers reports how different teams tried to implement Smalltalk-80 in different environments. Some chapters read like novels, and at the time I was astonished at the variety of approaches and the cleverness of some attempts. These were the first engineering tales I read, hinting at the future complexity in my professional life. "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?"

Of course, at the time I was using Smalltalk-V for my University course. To also enjoy this book, you probably need to enjoy CPUs, duck typing, compilers, and garbage collectors, all tempered with the 1970's optimism of Alan Kay. After all, the best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Table of contents

Part 1: Background

1. The Smalltalk-80 System Release Process, by Adele Goldberg
2. The Evolution of the Smalltalk Virtual Machine, by Daniel Η. Η. Ingalls
3. The Smalltalk-80 Code File Format, by Glenn Krasner
4. Design Decisions for Smalltalk-80 Implementors, by Allen Wirfs-Brock

Part 2: Experiences Implementing the Smalltalk-80 System

1. Implementing the Smalltalk-80 System: The Tektronix Experience, by Paul L. McCullough
2. The Smalltalk-80 Implementation at Hewlett-Packard, by Joseph R. Falcone, James R. Stinger
3. The Dorado Smalltalk-80 Implementation: Hardware Architecture's Impact on Software Architecture, by L. Peter Deutsch
4. The Design and Implementation of VAX/Smalltalk-80, by Stoney Ballard, Stephen Shirron

Part 3: Measurements and Analyses of Implementations

1. The Smalltalk-80 Benchmarks, by Kim McCall
2. An MC68000-Based Smalltalk-80 System, by Richard Meyers, David Casseres
3. Berkeley Smalltalk: Who Knows Where the Time Goes? By David M. Ungar, David A. Patterson
4. The Analysis of the Smalltalk-80 System at Hewlett-Packard, by Joseph R. Falcone
5. An Assessment of Method-Lookup Caches for Smalltalk-80 Implementations, by Thomas J. Conroy, Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart

Part 4: Proposals for the Future of the Smalltalk-80 System

1. LOOM—Large Object-Oriented Memory for Smalltalk-80 Systems, by Ted Kaehler, Glenn Krasner
2. Managing the Evolution of Smalltalk-80 Systems, by Steve Putz
3. Implementing a Smalltalk-80 File System and the Smalltalk-80 System as a Programming Tool, by D. Jason Penney
4. Implementing a Smalltalk-80 System on the Intel 432: A Feasibility Study, by Guy Almes, Alan Borning, Eli Messinger
5. Preferred Classes: A Proposal for Faster Smalltalk-80 Execution, by Robert Hagmann
6. Low-Overhead Storage Reclamation in the Smalltalk-80 Virtual Machine, by Scott B. Baden