Strongtalk
Smalltalk environment
title: "Strongtalk" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["high-level-programming-languages", "object-oriented-programming-languages", "class-based-programming-languages", "dynamically-typed-programming-languages", "smalltalk-programming-language-family", "programming-languages-created-in-2002", "cross-platform-free-software", "formerly-proprietary-software"] description: "Smalltalk environment" topic_path: "technology/programming-languages" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strongtalk" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Smalltalk environment ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox programming language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Strongtalk |
| logo | |
| screenshot | |
| paradigm | object-oriented |
| family | Smalltalk |
| designers | Gilad Bracha, |
| David Griswold | |
| developers | Animorphic Systems, |
| Sun Microsystems | |
| released | |
| latest release version | 2.0 |
| latest release date | |
| latest preview date | |
| typing | dynamic, optional static (strong) |
| scope | Lexical (static) |
| programming language | Smalltalk |
| discontinued | stalled |
| platform | IA-32 |
| operating system | cross-platform |
| license | BSD revised |
| file format | |
| website | |
| influenced by | Smalltalk, Self |
| influenced | Java HotSpot |
| :: |
| name = Strongtalk | logo = | logo caption = | screenshot = | screenshot caption = | paradigm = object-oriented | family = Smalltalk | designers = Gilad Bracha, David Griswold | developers = Animorphic Systems, Sun Microsystems | released = | latest release version = 2.0 | latest release date = | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | typing = dynamic, optional static (strong) | scope = Lexical (static) | programming language = Smalltalk | discontinued = stalled | platform = IA-32 | operating system = cross-platform | license = BSD revised | file ext = | file format = | website = | implementations = | dialects = | influenced by = Smalltalk, Self | influenced = Java HotSpot In computing, Strongtalk is a Smalltalk environment with optional static typing support. Strongtalk can make some compile time checks, and offer stronger type safety guarantees; this is the source of its name. It is non-commercial, though it was originally a commercial project developed by a small startup company named LongView Technologies (trading as Animorphic Systems).
History
David Griswold wanted to use Smalltalk more extensively, but then-extant implementations were insufficient for his needs. He wanted to improve the performance, add type-checking, and use native graphical user interface (GUI) widgets.{{cite web | url= http://www.strongtalk.org/history.html | title= Strongtalk history | work= Strongtalk.org | last1=Bracha |first1=Gilad |author-link1=Gilad Bracha |last2=Griswold |first2=David |chapter=Strongtalk: Typechecking Smalltalk in a production environment | title= Proceedings of the eighth annual conference on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applications | pages= 215–230 | year= 1993 |doi=10.1145/165854.165893 |isbn=0-89791-587-9 | chapter-url= http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/bracha93strongtalk.html
He became interested in the improvements that the team for the language Self had achieved, and envisioned the same methods used to improve Smalltalk. Urs Hölzle, who worked on the powerful Self compiler, spoke with Griswold about implementing the same type feedback in a Smalltalk compiler. Griswold, Hölzle, Lars Bak, and others formed a small company (LongView Technologies, doing business as Animorphic Systems) to re-implement Strongtalk. Work began in 1994 and they completed an implementation in 1996. The firm was bought by Sun Microsystems in 1997, and the team got focused on Java, releasing the HotSpot virtual machine,{{cite web | url= http://www.strongtalk.org/ | title= Strongtalk: A High-Performance Open Source Smalltalk With An Optional Type System | access-date= 7 April 2011
Sun released the 1997 re-implementation of Strongtalk as open-source software under a revised BSD license, including the Strongtalk system image in 2002, and the virtual machine in 2006. Strongtalk is touted as the fastest implementation of Smalltalk. Strongtalk is available for Windows XP (other ports are in the works) and includes a basic development environment.
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::