Contents
Adele Goldberg
Co-developing Smalltalk and helping bring object-oriented programming and graphical computing to a wider audience.
Personal Dynamic Media · Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation
- Born
- 22 July 1945
- Birthplace
- Cleveland, Ohio, United States
More people
Adele Goldberg
Adele Goldberg worked at Xerox PARC on software that made computers more interactive and accessible. She helped develop and explain Smalltalk, then carried its ideas into commercial tools and educational projects.
Early life
Mathematical interests
Grew up in Cleveland and Chicago and studied mathematics at the University of Michigan.
Learning through computers
Her University of Chicago doctorate examined computer-assisted instruction; she completed it in 1973.
Career
- 1973
Xerox PARC
Joined the research centre and worked with Alan Kay and Dan Ingalls on Smalltalk.
- 1980s
Research leadership
Managed the Systems Concepts Laboratory and promoted Smalltalk beyond Xerox.
- 1988
ParcPlace Systems
Left PARC to co-found a company providing Smalltalk development tools and training.
Contributions
Personal Dynamic Media
Co-authored a vision of computers as tools for creating, exploring and sharing media.
Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation
Wrote the influential reference with David Robson.
The Interactive Programming Environment
Explained Smalltalk’s tools and graphical working environment.
Beyond computing
Professional leadership
Served as president of the Association for Computing Machinery from 1984 to 1986.
Education projects
Co-founded Agile Mind, extending her longstanding interest in technology-supported learning.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional biography and research ↗Collected papers and publication dates ↗Photo: Terry Hancock. CC BY-SA 2.5 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
