Smalltalk

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

[edit]

From small talk; according to Alan Kay (one of its creators):[1]

The name actually appeared before the first Smalltalk design, which was done in 1971. I had mentioned to someone that the "prose" of then current programming languages was lower than a cocktail party conversation, and that great progress would have been made if we could even get to the level of making "smalltalk". It then occured[sic] to me that this word was also a great pun for a language aimed at the world of small children.

As for hype: Another motive for "smalltalk" was the practice at the time of naming operating, and other, systems (which hardly did anything) after mighty indo-european gods, such as Thor, Zeus, Odin, etc. I figured that if Smalltalk ever did something neat, then people would be pleasantly surprised.

Proper noun

[edit]

Smalltalk

  1. (computer languages) An object-oriented, dynamically-typed, reflective programming language.

Derived terms

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ “Where did the name Smalltalk come from?”, in Squeak/Smalltalk[1], 2006 December 15, archived from the original on 2007-01-03.

German

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Borrowed from English small talk.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • IPA(key): /ˈsmɔːlˌtɔːk/, /ˈsmɔlˌtoːk/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

[edit]

Smalltalk m or (rare) n (strong, genitive Smalltalks, plural Smalltalks)

  1. small talk
    Synonym: Plauderei
  2. a conversation involving small talk
    Synonym: Plauderei

Usage notes

[edit]
  • Generally masculine; the neuter is very rare.

Declension

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Smalltalk” in Duden online
  • Smalltalk” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache