Cuis: The Modern Smalltalk-80
Cuis Smalltalk presents itself as the "modern Smalltalk-80," offering a simple, powerful, and portable development environment. Its popularity on HN stems from its accessibility, making the historically significant Smalltalk language less intimidating, while also sparking discussions comparing it to other Smalltalk variants like Squeak and Pharo.
It's a testament to the enduring appeal of dynamic, image-based programming environments and a welcome entry point for those curious about its unique paradigm.
The Lowdown
Cuis Smalltalk is a free, modern Smalltalk-80 environment aiming for simplicity, power, and portability. It's designed to be fast and efficient, providing a clean slate for developers interested in the Smalltalk ecosystem, often lauded for its malleable nature and elegant design.
- Core Philosophy: Cuis emphasizes being simple, powerful, portable, fast, and efficient, building on the legacy of Smalltalk-80.
- Technical Foundations: It is derived from Squeak, similar to Pharo, but focuses on minimalism and re-engineered components, such as its hardware-accelerated vector graphics UI.
- Community & Development: The project is actively maintained, with regular releases (like Cuis 7.8) and community events like the upcoming Smalltalks 2026 conference and monthly meetings.
- Unique Features: Notably, its user interface is entirely based on hardware-accelerated vector graphics, ensuring crisp display even when zoomed or rotated.
Ultimately, Cuis offers an inviting entry point into the Smalltalk world, presenting a streamlined yet capable environment that retains the core principles of its influential predecessor while adapting to modern sensibilities.
The Gossip
Smalltalk's Enduring Allure and Modern Appeal
Many commenters expressed delight in rediscovering Smalltalk, noting Cuis's welcoming nature compared to other implementations. The discussion highlighted Smalltalk's historical role as an educational language, often cited as a peer to Logo, and how its principles continue to resonate with developers seeking elegant, object-oriented solutions.
Forking Paths: Cuis vs. Squeak & Pharo
A significant portion of the discussion revolved around Cuis's lineage and its positioning relative to other prominent Smalltalk implementations like Squeak and Pharo. Commenters elaborated on how Cuis, a fork of Squeak, distinguishes itself through a rigorous simplification process, leading to a leaner and more understandable system. Analogies were drawn to Linux distributions (Debian, Arch, Alpine) to illustrate the different design philosophies, with Cuis being praised for its stripped-down, easy-to-explore architecture.
Object-Oriented Oddities: Inheritance and Design
A philosophical tangent emerged concerning the fundamental tenets of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), specifically the role of inheritance. Some posters pointed out that early Smalltalk versions, despite being purely object-oriented, lacked inheritance. This led to a debate on whether inheritance is truly central to OOP, with some developers advocating for minimizing or avoiding it in modern programming practices, contrasting with its prevalent association in many contemporary OOP languages.