walter%mit-htvax@sri-unix.UUCP (04/12/84)
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
ANNALS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE SEMINAR
DATE: Friday, April 13th, 1984
TIME: Refreshments 12:00 noon
PLACE: MIT AI Lab 8th Floor Playroom
SMALLTALK-52 and the Wheeler Send
ABSTRACT
Recently discovered paper tapes reveal that J.M. Wheeler
designed the first version of Smalltalk in 1952,
intending it to run on the University of Cambridge's
EDSAC Computer. The initial implementation, however,
required the machine's entire 512-word memory and was deemed
infeasible. Wheeler, who is credited with the invention
of bootstrap code, subroutine calls, assemblers, linkers,
loaders, and all-night hacking, can now be properly
credited with inventing message passing, object oriented
programming, window systems, and impractical languages.
This fascinating historical discussion and the accompanying
Graduate Student Lunch will be hosted by Steve Berlin.
Next Week:
Lady Lovelace's Public-Key Encryption Algorithm.