Smalltalk Conferences 2024
Table of Contents
Overview
The Smalltalk community hosted several significant conferences in 2024, bringing together developers, researchers, and enthusiasts from around the world. The year featured both established European gatherings and South American events, showcasing the continuing evolution of Smalltalk dialects including Pharo, Squeak, Cuis, and GemStone/S.
Two major events dominated the 2024 Smalltalk calendar:
- ESUG 2024 (European Smalltalk User Group) in Lille, France
- Smalltalks 2024 in Mar del Plata, Argentina
ESUG 2024: International Conference
The 30th ESUG conference/summer-school was held in Lille, France from July 8-11, 2024. This milestone anniversary brought together the international Smalltalk community for presentations, tutorials, and collaborative sessions.
Key Details
- Location: Lille, France
- Dates: July 8-11, 2024
- Format: In-person conference with presentations (30 min), tutorials (45 min), and special sessions
- Special Sessions: "Show your business" (10 min demos) and "Teaching pearls" (10-15 min educational tips)
Topics Covered
- XP practices and development tools
- Web development and SOA/Web services
- Model-driven development and meta-modeling
- Experience reports from industry
- Security and embedded systems
- Educational materials and team management
- Integration with other programming languages
IWST 2024: International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies
Co-located with ESUG 2024, IWST 2024 served as the premier academic forum for Smalltalk research and innovation. The workshop accepted 10 papers from 14 submissions (8 regular, 2 short papers).
Notable Research Papers
- Smalltalk JIT Compilation: LLVM Experimentation - exploring LLVM integration for improved performance
- Redesigning FFI calls in Pharo - leveraging baseline JIT for enhanced performance and maintainability
- Phausto - DSP programming for sound and music creation in Pharo
- Modest-Pharo - unit test generation based on traces and metamodels
- MethodProxies - safe and fast message-passing control library
- Pyramidion - framework for domain-specific editors
- Modular and Extensible Extract Method - advanced refactoring techniques
Smalltalks 2024: Argentina Conference
Organized by FAST (Fundación Argentina de Smalltalk), the Smalltalks 2024 conference ran from November 13-15 at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, with a pre-conference track for students and teachers on November 11-12.
Featured Presentations
- Zag Smalltalk - high-performance implementation using LLVM JIT compilation
- Soil - object-oriented database written fully in/for Pharo
- Egg Smalltalk - portable interpreter with web browser support and x64 JIT compilation
- Yesplan - 15 years of "develop in Pharo, deploy in GemStone" for venue management
- Cuis Refactorings with LiveTyping - advanced refactoring tools for Cuis Smalltalk
- Seaside - modern web application framework integration strategies
- GemStone - scalable multi-user Smalltalk architecture and roadmap
- Representar Project - drawing-based programming tool for children
Smalltalk Ecosystem in 2024
Major Dialects and Platforms
- Pharo - modern Smalltalk with focus on clean design and powerful tools
- Squeak - multimedia-rich Smalltalk environment
- Cuis - minimalist, focused Smalltalk implementation
- GemStone/S - enterprise-grade, scalable Smalltalk platform
- Zag Smalltalk - emerging high-performance implementation
- Egg Smalltalk - portable Smalltalk with web and native support
Key Technologies and Frameworks
- Seaside - versatile web application framework
- Soil - object-oriented database for Pharo
- LLVM Integration - modern JIT compilation approaches
- FFI Enhancements - improved foreign function interface capabilities
- LiveTyping - dynamic type analysis for better tooling
Resources
Conference Proceedings
- IWST 2024 Proceedings: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3893/
- ESUG Conference Page: https://esug.org/2024-Conference/conf2024.html
- Smalltalks 2024 Videos: https://smalltalks2024.fast.org.ar/
Organizations
- ESUG (European Smalltalk User Group): https://esug.org/
- FAST (Fundación Argentina de Smalltalk): https://www.fast.org.ar/
Community Resources
- Pharo Project: https://pharo.org/
- Squeak Community: https://squeak.org/
- GemStone/S: https://gemtalksystems.com/
Conclusion
2024 demonstrated the continued vitality of the Smalltalk community, with strong academic research, industrial applications, and educational initiatives. The conferences showcased both preservation of Smalltalk's core principles and innovative adaptations to modern computing challenges, from web development to embedded systems and AI integration.