It has always fascinated me that Smalltalk nearly universally comes with a window system and self-editing run-time.
I remember Sun's "Lively Kernel" project. It looks like this has some of that DNA in it. I can't claim to have ever bent my brain to quite grok Smalltalk-and-attendant-tools, but I definitely appreciate its contribution to our software heritage and see traces of it all around, especially in the NeXT/Apple ecosystem.
This is very much powered by the lively kernel. Dan H. H. Ingalls, the main programmer of Smalltalk-72, created The Lively Kernel and the Smalltalk Zoo site. It's great to see him continue his work.
I think that Lively Kernel has huge potential to influence the current web. When you consider something like how this site (HN) operates, and could be implemented using something like the LK, perhaps we can start programming interactive systems better than we do.
Note that the Lively Kernel dates from 2007 (!) -- development continues to be supported by the Hasso-Plattner institute in Potsdam, Germany. https://lively-next.org/
I've never seen Smalltalk-style self-editing in a JavaScript framework; is there a specific one you're referring to? Or just the fact that it has eval()?
You can edit html in devtools. You can also edit and save js files in devtools source tab and changes will be immediately visible. I think browser exposes apis for reloading as well, which is what framework devtools use (not sure about that one) so you don't have to use the browser for development. Does smalltalk provide anything over and above that?
You're describing an editor combined with a debugger. JS isn't your chrome inspector.
You can't really do a like-for-like comparison. I encourage you to check out Pharo or Squeak, and at least do the intro tutorial, to see the difference for yourself.
That's not to be elitist, it's just really worth trying out.
I remember Sun's "Lively Kernel" project. It looks like this has some of that DNA in it. I can't claim to have ever bent my brain to quite grok Smalltalk-and-attendant-tools, but I definitely appreciate its contribution to our software heritage and see traces of it all around, especially in the NeXT/Apple ecosystem.