Help - Background - Total computing - 1

Total computing - Next

1. Squeak is a total computing environment

I need a term to explain what makes Squeak so different that is not currently (ab)used. I shall use 'total computing environment', and say that Squeak is a total computing environment.

What is a total computing environment? A single program running on a computer that enables human users to do everything a computer is capable of within that very environment.

This means that

- everything in Squeak is completely programmable in Squeak
- of everything Squeak the full source code is given and is fully alterable
- everything running in Squeak can be reprogrammed as it runs in Squeak.

The best likeness would be a complete OS (Operating System) like Windows, including a programming environment like C to reprogram it, with the radical differences

- that of every application one could get the full code;
- that full code was all in the same programming language and
- that same programming language was running inside the OS it can (re)program.

Alternatively, Squeak is like a self-contained Operating System (OS) with fully available code for everything it is, does and displays, that can be altered as the code runs. In the terms just explained Squeak is much more like the OS Linux than like the OS Windows, but Linux is oriented around the programming language C. And the programming language C or C++ embodies a quite different conception of programming than do Smalltalk and Squeak.

That Squeak IS a total computing environment is the fact that makes Squeak so totally different from other programs running on a computer.

Total computing - Next