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Smalltalk has been very successful language for kids, especially its Squeak environment. Good places to start with http://squeakland.org/ and http://www.whysmalltalk.com/

Smalltalk, because you are completely isolated from the boring mechanics of programming. Nasty things like files, editors, compilers, linkers.
http://www.smalltalk.org/main/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalltalk

Smalltalk, because there are 2 very good free (gratis),
http://www.exept.de/exept/english/Smalltalk/frame_ uebersicht.html
http://smalltalk.cincom.com/index.ssp

and at least 2 Free ( Libre ) implementations.
http://www.squeak.org/
http://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/smalltalk.ht ml

Smalltalk, because is was deliberately designed for small people to have fun,
yet you can grow-up with it.
http://www.squeakland.org/

Smalltalk, because it is well documented.
http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~ducasse/FreeBooks.html
http://www.whysmalltalk.com/tutorials/visualworks. htm

In a couple of words, it Just Works, and your sanity will not be harmed.

If you can't drop the "program in a file" paradigm, then checkout
http://www.ruby-lang.org/
http://www.python.org/

Don't even dream about anything BASIC because your dreams will turn into really horrendous nightmares before you can even turn around twice.

Lots of niches, actually.
See, for example sorting french fries, or in this larger PDF, scheduling all of Deutsche Bahn's trains (page 38) or derivatives trading (page 33 and here), as well as a a variety of other applications. Or there's an example of controlling a semiconductor fab facility, a good many of which are controlled by Adventa's Smalltalk-based products. Or there's continuation-based web stuff like Seaside or Dabble. etcetera. If you'd really like to know more, you might be interested in upcoming conferences such as Smalltalk Solutions.

...his Smalltalk programming language was a predecessor to Sun Microsystems' Java

Aha! So God invented OOP, not Stroustrop as we previously thought.

"I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind." -- Alan Kay, author of Smalltalk (Why Smalltalk?), Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications, 1997.

Smalltalk, a good tool for kids to learn about computers.

And not just for them ;-)

Collection c; ... for (String s : c)

What if I have a data structure that is logically iterable yet not a Collection nor an array? How would I use for in say, a Vector or Matrix class of my own design? What if I wanted that for loop to iterate over the elements of a Matrix in some nonstandard denumerable manner?

It would seem more logical to me for Java to simply apply allow blocks as used in Smalltalk.

URL : Enhanced for discussion on JCP site

URL : About Smalltalk Blocks

While the implementation is Smalltalk specific, Niall Ross and Andrew McQuiggin present an XP oriented approach to testing that may provide inspiration to slashdottes who can't make smalltalk. XML certainly is a possible approach for a non-Smalltalk implementation. In addition, John Metsker's Building Parsers with Java includes a flexible approach to testing that goes well beyond traditional JUnit. In particular it addresses the issue of generating ad hoc tests that exercise unexpected input.

Does everything in the list except multiple inheritance - and prompts the question of why that is needed? And the broader question, that others have asked, why spec the language rather than the requirements? Note my obvious bias, and check this news site: http://www.whysmalltalk.com

"This is a study of Language productivity. What it shows is that compared to other general purpose languages, Smalltalk is more productive in a function points per man month scale as well as number of statements per function point scale. Check it out!"

I can't remember what other languages were surveyed when I glanced at it, but spr.com used to be working (code red?)

How can one pass by a starving troll on the street and not toss some crumbs his way?

Do you want this poor slobbering VB coding neanderthal to never get a job?

There seems to be a fairly steady stream of job announcements on comp.lang.smalltalk, for example. And there are other resources. Moreover, I'm sure there are plenty of jobs that are like mine - an employer wants things done but doesn't care how they get done. In such cases, one is pretty much free to apply whatever tools one thinks best. If the poster is in such a situation, he may well find Smalltalk helpful.

Smalltalk is DEAD

Really? Tell that to the likes of FedEx, Sprint, Wall Street banks and all these people

Some cross platform Smalltalk versions are Visual Age Smalltalk by IBM (needs to rebuild the app for each platform, uses native widgets) and VisualWorks by Cincom (binary portable, uses emulated widgets).
Both have a code revision system, IBM has ENVY as an option, VisualWorks comes with STORE.

More Smalltalk info at WhySmalltalk

T_f_J, you're entitled to an opinion, of course, but your vocabulary in itself demonstrates the problem. To serve the economic and egoistic purposes of various Influential Entities, programming languages have become like car styles and Parisian fashions. Who judges that a programming language "belongs in a by-gone" era? What's the basis for that judgment? Is it that it hasn't a Roy Oily animal character and book assigned it yet? Is it that there's no John Wayne icon picked for it? Surely, a programming language is judged based upon the readiness with which its practitioners can build real systems while keeping an eye on long term costs and adaptability to changes in requirements.

If popularity were the test of achievement, then Visual Basic is (and remains, despite some deflation) king of the hill. You can't really mean that.

Most people who embrace Smalltalk have tried many other languages in professional contexts and are simply compelled to use it. There are lots of reasons why programmers unfamiliar with Smalltalk are missing out, even if they don't or can't use it. It's a powerful idea. I've described some of these in a letter to the editor of Dr Dobbs about a year ago. Smalltalk repeatedly surprises even its afficianados with rediscovered power and grace.

And if you want to see some of the other reasons Smalltalk wins, check out John McIntosh's site, Peter Lount's place, and the nifty (IMO) Dolphin Smalltalk.

• Squeak (www.squeak.org) is bit-compatible across several platforms -- just ftp your image over and run it. Open-source under a liberal license.
• VisualWorks (www.cincom.com/visualworks/) also runs bit-identical across Linux, Solaris, Windows 95/98/NT, PowerMac, HP-UX, etc. My personal favorite, though it's not truly open source. You can see all of the source to the class libraries, you just have to pay the vendor when you want to deploy
• Smalltalk X (www.exept.de) has recently been ported to NT.

• We have a large machine control system written in VisualWorks that we ported to Linux one afternoon (in about 45 minutes) -- the only difficulties were external Windows DLL calls that we were making (e.g., bring up the native windows file dialog).

  See also: www.whysmalltalk.com