American computer scientist born in 1945, Adele Goldberg worked at Xerox PARC where she contributed to the development of the Smalltalk programming language. She played a pioneering role in the design of graphical user interfaces and object-oriented programming.
Adele Goldberg(1945 — ?)
Adele Goldberg
États-Unis
8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born July 22, 1945, in Cleveland, Ohio
- Joined Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in 1973
- Co-developed the Smalltalk-80 language with Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls
- Published the landmark book 'Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation' in 1983
- Received the ACM Software System Award in 1987 for Smalltalk
Works & Achievements
Goldberg's major contribution to the development of Smalltalk, the first complete and coherent object-oriented language. Smalltalk directly inspired Java, Python, Ruby, and virtually all modern programming languages.
A reference manual co-written with David Robson that provides a complete description of the Smalltalk-80 language. This publication enabled the worldwide spread of object-oriented programming across universities and research laboratories.
A collective volume edited by Goldberg, bringing together accounts from researchers who had implemented Smalltalk at various institutions. It documents the first wave of global adoption of an object-oriented language.
A visionary article published in IEEE Computer describing the concept of a personal, portable, and interactive computer accessible to everyone, including children. This text anticipated the era of ubiquitous computing by twenty years.
A company co-founded by Goldberg to commercialize Smalltalk and make object-oriented programming accessible to professional developers. ParcPlace Systems helped bring this paradigm into the software industry.
Anecdotes
In 1979, Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC and attended a demonstration of Smalltalk and its graphical interfaces. Adele Goldberg had opposed the visit, fearing the lab's ideas would be copied — which is exactly what happened, directly inspiring Apple's Macintosh launched in 1984.
Adele Goldberg was one of the few women to hold a senior researcher position at a leading computer science laboratory in the 1970s. She contributed not only to the Smalltalk language itself, but also to writing its complete documentation, published in the famous 'Blue Book' of 1983, which became a worldwide reference for programmers.
Goldberg served as president of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), the world's largest professional computing organization, from 1984 to 1986. She was one of the first women to lead this institution, founded in 1947, at a time when women were vastly underrepresented in the field.
At Xerox PARC, Goldberg's team worked toward a radical vision: that computers should be accessible to everyone, including children. Smalltalk was tested in California elementary school classrooms as early as the 1970s, long before PCs existed in people's homes.
In 1988, Adele Goldberg co-founded ParcPlace Systems to commercialize Smalltalk and bring object-oriented programming within reach of businesses. This initiative helped popularize a programming paradigm that still dominates today in languages such as Java, Python, and Ruby.
Primary Sources
Smalltalk-80 is an object-oriented programming language. Everything in the system is an object. An object is a component of the Smalltalk-80 system that can perform actions when stimulated by messages.
The Smalltalk-80 system was developed at Xerox PARC over a period of about ten years. This book describes the experiences of people who have used Smalltalk-80 in a variety of settings.
The learning environment we propose is one in which each child owns a powerful, lightweight, interactive computer... The computer could be used as a simulation tool, a communications device, a learning aid.
Children as young as eight years old were able to write programs in Smalltalk after relatively short training sessions, demonstrating the accessibility of the object-oriented paradigm.
Key Places
Birthplace of Adele Goldberg, born in 1945 in this industrial metropolis in the American Midwest. Growing up here shaped her interest in science and mathematics.
Goldberg earned her PhD in information science here in 1973. This world-renowned research university gave her the theoretical foundations that would guide her entire career toward information systems and computer science education.
The main site of Goldberg's career from 1973 to 1988, this research laboratory is often described as "the place where the future was invented." It was here that she co-developed Smalltalk and contributed to the graphical interfaces that would revolutionize computing worldwide.
The region where the fledgling computer industry was concentrated during the 1970s and 1980s. Goldberg lived and worked here during the most creative decades in the history of computing, alongside the pioneers who would go on to found Apple, Microsoft, and Intel.
Typical Objects
An experimental computer developed at PARC from 1973 onward, on which Goldberg and her team ran Smalltalk. The Alto was the first computer to offer a graphical interface with windows, icons, and a mouse, foreshadowing every modern operating system.
A peripheral invented by Doug Engelbart and refined at PARC, the mouse was inseparable from Smalltalk demonstrations. Goldberg used it daily to show how to interact visually with objects in the program.
Unlike the text-only terminals of the era, a bitmap display could render graphics, varied fonts, and overlapping windows. It was the central tool of Goldberg's work in designing accessible interfaces.
A reference work co-authored by Goldberg in 1983, this 714-page manual gave a complete description of the Smalltalk-80 language. It was nicknamed the 'Blue Book' because of its blue cover and became the bible of object-oriented programming.
Also invented at PARC, the laser printer made it possible to produce high-quality documents. Goldberg and her colleagues used it to print documentation and the results of their research.
A fixture in PARC's meeting rooms, the whiteboard was used to sketch class and object diagrams. Goldberg relied on it to teach Smalltalk concepts to new researchers and to the children in the pilot classrooms.
School Curriculum
Vocabulary & Tags
Key Vocabulary
Tags
Daily Life
Morning
In the 1970s–1980s at Xerox PARC, Goldberg arrived early at the lab, a modern campus nestled among California hills. She often started with stand-up team meetings around a whiteboard, discussing new features of Smalltalk with Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, and the other researchers in a deliberately relaxed and creative atmosphere.
Afternoon
Afternoons were devoted to programming on Xerox Alto workstations — bulky machines equipped with graphical displays that were exceedingly rare at the time. Goldberg also worked on writing documentation and tested Smalltalk with non-specialist users, notably through educational experiments with children from local elementary schools.
Evening
Evenings in Silicon Valley during the 1970s–1980s often stretched late into the night at the lab, the intellectual buzz making it hard to switch off. PARC researchers also gathered at informal seminars and conferences around the region — a dense social network that fueled the exchange of ideas among the pioneers of personal computing.
Food
California cuisine in the 1970s was shaped by the natural and organic food movement popularized by Alice Waters in Berkeley. The cafeterias of tech campuses like PARC offered varied menus, and the regional culture prized fresh fruit, salads, and a lighter style of eating than was common in the rest of the United States.
Clothing
In California research labs of the 1970s–1980s, casual attire was the norm — jeans, polo shirts, and sneakers replaced the suits and ties of traditional corporate life. Goldberg embraced this practical style while still presenting a polished appearance at conferences and official presentations for the ACM.
Housing
Goldberg lived in the Palo Alto area, a leafy residential suburb of Santa Clara County. Homes in this neighborhood — often ranch-style houses built in the 1950s–1960s — were comfortable without being lavish; the cost of real estate in Silicon Valley had not yet reached the exorbitant levels it commands today.
Historical Timeline
Period Vocabulary
Liens externes & ressources
Références
Œuvres
Langage de programmation Smalltalk-80
1972-1980
Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation (« Blue Book »)
1983
Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice
1984
Personal Dynamic Media (article avec Alan Kay)
1977
Fondation de ParcPlace Systems
1988
