Is there a version of Smalltalk with Erlang style distributed message passing?

Question

Is there a version of Smalltalk that allows distributed message passing, much as Erlang has? Could Smalltalk be an ideal language if it has this distributed message passing, as Smalltalk also implements its own VM if I am not mistaken?

Answer 1

In Cincom VisualWorks there is a library called OpenTalk. The basic idea is the same -- replace remote object with local proxy. Good thing about OpenTalk is that in many cases it just works, and in other cases you can customize it by replacing its components (marshaller, policies, network transport, etc).

Basically, OpenTalk message passing is synchronous (contrary to Erlang as far as I know). But you can implement (and some users have implemented) any required semantics in a rather straightforward way.

OpenTalk is a part of standard VisualWorks library.

VisualWorks page at Cincom: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/main/products/visualworks

Answer 2

There is SqueakElib

• http://www.squeaksource.com/squeakelib.html

• wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6011

Answer 3

Everything in Smalltalk is done through message passing. Almost all of it is local of course.

Richard Durr hints at it in his answer, but Croquet have a library called Islands, which is modelled on E's Vats.

Answer 4

Have a look at Croquet. Maybe their technology is what you want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_project