On Possible Extensions to the Smalltalk Syntax

Leandro Caniglia, Javier Burroni

Abstract: Even though changing it is fairly easy, the Smalltalk syntax has remained essentially stable for many decades. The reason is that people are cautious about side effects that could mess up something provably good. This doesn't mean that there aren't variations one might propose, but that the real task is to identify a coherent, non-distorting, set of extensions that increase the expressiveness of the language in favor of new possibilities related to areas such as interoperability, formal reasoning and mathematics.