When software doesn’t fully meet the needs of its user, what are the user’s options? For commercial software, the user can lobby the manufacturer for the feature they need—but the manufacturer may not respond. For open-source software, the user can fork the repo and add the feature themselves—but this requires becoming a developer on the platform the app is written in. But there have been better options in the past history of computing: software platforms that allow users to inspect the code of their software and modify it in the same environment the software runs in. With these software platforms, anyone using the application already has all the tooling they need to see how the application works and modify it. Platforms like this have played a significant role in the advancement of personal computing; can they do so again? This talk presents two such user-modifiable software systems: Smalltalk and HyperCard. Based on research into these systems’ origins, properties, and impact, it offers seven insights from them that can be applied to current and future user-modifiable systems.

1. Josh Justice | LIVE 2021 | Oct 19
User-Modifiable Software
Smalltalk and HyperCard

2. User-Modifiable Software:
Software that the user can inspect and modify
in the same environment they run it in.

3. Josh Justice
Web Platform Lead
Big Nerd Ranch

4. Smalltalk
Researching Smalltalk to learn
about the foundations of
dynamically-typed object-oriented
programming languages

5. Smalltalk
“Dynamic” means:
• Inspect the state of running objects and send messages to them
• Source for every class is available for inspection
• Modify or extend a class from within the system and it affects the live instances

6. HyperCard

7. HyperCard
• Send messages to the current card
• UI and scripts are available for inspection
• Modify a UI element or script from within the system for immediate effect

8. Questions To Answer:
• How did these two different user-modifiable systems emerge?
• Motivation
• Properties
• Challenges
• What insights can we gain from them to apply to new user-modifiable systems?

9. https://usermodifiable.softwa
re

10. Seven Insights about
User-Modifiable Systems

11. 1. Think outside the box.
Smalltalk and HyperCard took significantly different
approaches to creating user-modifiable platforms.

12. •Starts with Code
•No Barriers
•Written In Itself
Smalltalk
•Starts with UI
•Explicit User Levels
•Written in Pascal
HyperCard

13. 1. Think outside the box.
There are many ways a user-modifiable system can work.

14. 2. Focus on a vision.
These systems were driven by simple visions,
not detailed up-front designs.

15. HyperCard:
The Software Erector Set

16. HyperCard:
Software LEGOs

17. Bill Atkinson, "The Legacy of HyperCard"
“The cleanest, simplest set of tools that
would empower a lot of different things.”

18. The set of tools:
•Graphics
•Text
•Buttons

19. Dan Ingalls, "Design Principles Behind Smalltalk"
“The purpose of the Smalltalk project is to provide computer support
for the creative spirit in everyone.
If a system is to serve the creative spirit, it must be entirely
comprehensible to a single individual… Any barrier that exists
between the user and some part of the system will eventually be a
barrier to creative expression.”

20. Ted Kaehler, email interview
“We were devoted to letting users ‘see’ their code better
and more simply…
We avoided putting code in files so the user would not
have to think about or manage files.”

21. 2. Focus on a vision.
Following a simple vision can yield better results
than following a detailed plan.

22. 3. Eat your own dogfood.
These systems grew in featuresets as
their creators used them for their own work.

23. Smalltalk Development Tools
• “Larry Tesler created the ‘Code Browser’ to let users see the classes and methods
of the entire system.
• Dan Ingalls implemented the first opaque overlapping windows to let users see
more code and other objects on the screen.
• Dan invented pop-up menus to put editing commands where the user was working
at that moment.
Ted Kaehler, email interview

24. The HyperCard
Help Stack

25. Ted Kaehler, email interview
“Development [of HyperCard] was partly driven by the requirements of
the HyperCard Help Stack, which my wife Carol Kaehler was making.
She needed an unchanging background for a group of cards. She
needed multiple backgrounds in a stack. She needed scripting to make
buttons navigate between cards. She needed scripts to show what each
paint tool could do.”

26. 3. Eat your own dogfood.
Make your system practically useful for you.

27. 4. Open-source it.
One reason Smalltalk evolved and HyperCard died
is the availability of the source code.

28. 4. Open-source it.
• HyperCard was commercial software.
• It was discontinued by its manufacturer.
• Because the source is not available, making a successor requires a rewrite.

29. 4. Open-source it.
• “the Smalltalk compilers, tools and libraries were provided in source form; only the
VMs were closed source.” — Gilad Bracha, “Bits of History, Words of Advice”
• “the Blue Book contains a Smalltalk description of the virtual machine” which was
translated to C — Dan Ingalls, “Back to the Future: The History of Squeak, a
Practical Smalltalk Written in Itself”
Squeak Smalltalk came from open source:

30. 4. Open-source it.
One way to ensure user-modifiable software stays available to
users is to open-source it.

31. 5. Put it out into the world.
The reason we know about these systems is because they
took steps to get into business’ and consumers’ hands.

32. Bill Atkinson, "Legacy of HyperCard"
“It was an exchange medium… You want
people to be sharing stuff. They all have to have
the software that it takes at least to play it, but
hopefully to be able to author it also. So I
worked out an arrangement with Apple that it
would be bundled free, be in the box with every
Mac…”

33. Adele Goldberg, "Oral History of Adele Goldberg"
“I knew we had something important that met the
goal of empowering people. But we didn’t
understand enough about what this did to empower
people, and we really needed to learn. And the only
way was to just get out there commercially.”

34. A contradiction:
1. “Smalltalk and/or HyperCard are important,” and
2. “The only thing that matters is research.”

35. 5. Put it out into the world.
One way to increase your system’s impact is
getting your system into consumers’ or businesses’ hands.

36. 6. Get it in the box.

37. Bettencourt, "The xTalk Interviews"
“What made HyperCard the ubiquitous product it was in the
early 90’s… was the fact that it was included free with every
Macintosh sold. So anybody could use it to create something,
then share their creation with somebody else with the
confidence that the other person would be able to run it.”

38. What is the box today?

39. What is available on
every computing device
without requiring any action,
purchase, or download?

41. 6. Get it in the box.
Find ways to make the system
immediately available to users.

42. 7. Appreciate spin-offs.
Some of the biggest impacts these systems had
are the other systems they inspired.

43. HyperCard as a
Successor to Smalltalk

44. Ted Kaehler, interview
“HyperCard evolved a lot during its development and
Alan Kay was advising Bill Atkinson. Bill had very clear
goals for HyperCard, but Alan and I did try to push it in
certain directions… Alan and I argued for generalized
objects and classes, but Bill wanted to keep it very
concrete. He was right.”

45. The Web as a
Successor to HyperCard

47. Bill Atkinson, "The Legacy of HyperCard"
“There was a little difference [from the web] that
HyperCard was always an authoring environment, never
just a browser. I didn’t separate the guys who consume
the information from the guys who create it.”

48. Web IDEs as
User-Modifiable Systems

50. 7. Appreciate spin-offs.
The biggest impact your system has
may be inspiring another system.

51. Principles from Smalltalk and HyperCard
1. Think outside the box.
2. Focus on a vision.
3. Eat your own dogfood.
4. Open-source it.
5. Put it out into the world.
6. Get it in the box.
7. Appreciate spin-offs.

52. Thank you! Questions?
1. Think outside the box.
2. Focus on a vision.
3. Eat your own dogfood.
4. Open-source it.
5. Put it out into the world.
6. Get it in the box.
7. Appreciate spin-offs.
User-Modifiable Software: Smalltalk and HyperCard | Josh Justice | LIVE 2021 | Oct 19