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4. Object-oriented languages (not
only Smalltalk) are often "explained" in misleading terms
The final fundamental reason that makes
Smalltalk and
Squeak hard to get is that
Smalltalkish languages normally, and since the early 1980-ies, have been
"explained" in terms of metaphors and English that is quite unhelpful amd
misleading and that obscures the real beauty of the code it seeks to clarify.
These standard explanations of Smalltalkish code explain code in terms as if the
code itself is speaking to the user and as if the code has the knowledge and
desires of a human being. Thus, the normal explanations of code in Smalltalk and
Squeak have been on the pattern of "I am a foobar that knows how to foo though I
desire to fee if I am fussed (thanks to polymorphism)", which in fact is
categorical nonsense: Code and language have NO understanding whatsoever, and
cannot speak for themselves as human beings can, nor do they know, understand or
desire things.