> Smalltalk and the ideas it was based on revolutionized personal computing. There is raw, unbridled genius in it and that should be widely recognized.
This is not historically correct. What we understand today by "personal computer" was described by Butler Lampson in his famous paper in 1972 and was first realized in the famous Alto Computer. The first desktop GUI and the first WYSIWYG applications for the Alto were implemented in BCPL (not Smalltalk). The first version of Smalltalk, which most closely corresponds to our todays understanding of Smalltalk, did not appear until 1976, and two other important features were not even introduced until 1980. So if you are looking for geniuses, you will need to increase your search range a little.
Who's to disagree with your aesthetic judgement? You're not wrong to like it, if you like it.
I found it sufficiently obtuse that I walked away from my life's dream. The nostalgia circuit touts it as an amazing educational environment, in my experience it was not.
I was self-taught in Java, C and Foxpro, and then joined a company of Smalltalkers who had to transition to Java. They used Visual Age for Smalltalk and Visual Age for Java.
For various reasons, for a few months at work, I had a really low end computer that couldn't run Visual Age for Java. (I couldn't afford a computer that could run Visual Age for Java/Smalltalk).
However, I got to learn from some of the best Smalltalkers in the world. Thanks to the wonderful foundation they gave me in OOPs, I have since then been able grasp domains very well.
In a different set of circumstances, I got to learn how agile and Test Driven Development work very well even in larger teams. I've worked on teams with 250 odd people from three different companies and two different timezones and cultures. Due to my current work, I get to see how horrible a person's experience can be with agile and with Test Driven Development.
Today, I had an illuminating 90 minutes session on Complex Numbers. This was my second class online. After 30-odd years of being furious at Mathematics, I have now come to embrace it.
I have concluded that the right mentorship and learning materials and experience can go a long way in helping make a topic exciting and interesting.
Your hurt is evident. From what you have shared, it seems to be the absence of good tutorials that were a roadblock, and not Smalltalk or Visual Age for Smalltalk itself.
Smalltalk and the ideas it was based on revolutionized personal computing. There is raw, unbridled genius in it and that should be widely recognized.