Thread by @conways_law

@hillelogram "Everything is an object." That's the point but it doesn't reach where the mind-bender really is. It leads to errors when you forget it because your mind has been corrupted by another language

There is no way for you to touch data

EVERYTHING is indirect

That changes everything

@hillelogram Example showing 4 lines of Smalltalk and the inspector they open. It assigns the OrderedCollection (1,2,3) to x and y. Then puts 5 in the second element of y. Then inspects x. Normal people expect the 2nd element of x to be 2, but it's 5.
Reason: references are assigned to x, y

@hillelogram Corollary: Nothing in the language precludes an object being in more than one place at the same time, whether as the value of a variable or contained in another object.

This consistent transparent indirection is a big contributor to Smalltalk's being conceptually so simple.

@hillelogram Many cite the simplicity of #Smalltalk's language syntax. It's not a feature; it's a byproduct of the fact that there is one uniform way to access everything, from a character to the most complex object. To grok its simplicity you have to unlearn the dualism in hybrid languages

@hillelogram @threadreaderapp unroll

@hillelogram @threadreaderapp unroll