Dolphin Smalltalk

http://www.object-arts.com/content/navigation/home.html

Dolphin Smalltalk offers a family of Windows-based Smalltalk products that includes a free or low-cost version. It's very Windows-oriented, allowing you to build GUIs with real Windows widgets, etc. It's nice, reasonably efficient, builds small images, and is small enough to make it less daunting than VisualWorks. A choice worth considering if you're a Windows buff. (Editorializing by RonJeffries, not associated with ObjectArts.)

You can be introduced to smalltalk via a free Community version

How funny. When I first saw the title of this page, I assumed the topic was the Smalltalk-80 system that ran on the old Xerox 1100 workstations, affectionately known as "Dolphins". The Dolphin was the third Xerox computer that ran a Smalltalk VM, after the Alto and the Dorado (also known as 1136). In the early and mid-1980s, Xerox actually sold Dolphins running Smalltalk (and applications written in Smalltalk) to several customers, making it the first commercial Smalltalk product platform. --JoshuaSusser

Yes, we realized that when we were creating Dolphin. However, the name actually came from this little adage that I bandied about in-house during the development of the product:

"Dolphins have been around for quite a long while but it's only relatively recently that everyone has come to appreciate how brilliant they are. A bit like Smalltalk really.. " --AndyBower

If dolphins really were brilliant, they would've invented Smalltalk. :)

What I love about Object Arts's marketing is that there are actually no dolphins in sight. Maybe you're supposed to be the dolphin, having fun with your brightly-coloured ball? It's an appalling thought...

Appalling, or appealing?

From what I heard and read, dolphins were terrestial animals a long time ago. Eventually, they must have gotten sick and tired of other terrestial creatures, acquired a taste for seafood, and decided to go back in the water. I love seafood, and think that might have been a very smart move! F Razo

March 2008 - ObjectArts has finished major development of Dolphin. In particular, ObjectArts will not be moving Dolphin from the now-"legacy" WinThirtyTwo API to MicrosoftWindows' new DotNet platform. However the Professional Edition and the trial version remain available and supported. According to Bower, the demand for DolphinSmalltalk is too small to make the major effort of a DotNet port worthwhile for ObjectArts.

(ObjectArts had originally announced in 2007 that the commercial version would no longer be sold: http://www.object-arts.com/content/news/developmentDiscontinued.html But the announcement proved a GoodCareerMove: it produced an uptick of interest in Dolphin. ObjectArts is willing to agree to a buyout of Dolphin or the sale of source licenses, but only for substantial amounts of money: http://www.object-arts.com/content/blog/2007Sep07.html )

CategorySoftwareTool CategoryLanguageImplementation CategorySmalltalk