Back in my Windows programming days, I was always interested in Dolphin Smalltalk. I didn’t get a chance to use it much, but always hoped the opportunity would come.

Time passed and my career migrated to Linux and then OS/X, so my ability to use Dolphin Smalltalk disappeared. Then Dolphin Smalltalk went dormant several years ago.

Imagine my surprise last week when I saw that Object Arts has released Dolphin Smalltalk 7 as an open source project on GitHub! There are two repositories: one for the virtual machine and one for the Smalltalk core image.

While my Windows days are over for the foreseeable future, I’m really happy to see this release. It’s always a shame when good products die and then disappear. (Hostess O’Ryan’s Sour Cream and Onion potato chips anyone?)

If you have access to a Windows computer or VM and always wanted to give Smalltalk a try, I highly recommend starting with Dolphin Smalltalk. Even if you can’t use it for a “real project”, learning Smalltalk will make you a better programmer.