I wonder whether, with some 'fairly minor' changes to the language syntax, Self might a really good, quite high performance scripting language.

The enhancements I can see would be:

1. optional parameters
2. decent library of string manipulation (like TCL has)

For a long time at Sun we tried to sell a concept we called "The Green Blur." I can't recall the origin of the color, but it had to do with making Self into an system that offers a smooth, continuous path leading from end-user programmer land ("scripting") to full-fledged programmer land.

This was part of the motivation behind the Morphic user interface stuff...end users could directly rip apart a running application, get in there, tweak something, and..before you know it..they are programming!

At a deeper level, I do not believe there needs be a conflict between concreteness and abstraction. Use of prototypes is an example of that. And concrete abstractions are ideal for bluring the end-user and full-fleged programming worlds.

Sounds simple, but there are many barriers along the path, and syntax is a big one. Also, appropriately filtering or narrowing the view of the massivly populated "library" of existing objects.

--Randy

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