VisualWorks* The Image: A Virtual Veldt
The Cradle of Object-Oriented Architecture
An Olduvai Gorge Teeming with Patterns
Notes:
*A word about the name VisualWorks. Why this among the many names for this place? The alliterative possibilities for one thing, obviously. By this name, though, I obviously mean the pedigreed images descended from the the Learning Research Groups ‘70s images: the Xerox/Parc Place/Object Works/Visual Works/Object Share lineage. The Mayflower bits. The Lucy’s. The Leakey/Olduvai Gorge bits. I believe some of these bits go back to Smalltalk-74, and are therefore older than some of the people in this room.
I say Zimbabwe, you say Rhodesia, I say Ndebeleland…
This place has had many names. And a place it surely is.
You have a docile audience if they don’t object to the fact that Olduvai is in east Africa, while the veldt in in southern Africa. If they catch it, observe that you were merely fishing for memorable metaphors, and are aware of the inconsistency.
What’s in a name, anyhow?