Smalltalk
Smalltalk made large contributions to two areas of computing, even though
it is not widely used. The first is object-oriented programming. Although
OO concepts were originally designed in SIMULA, Smalltalk was the first
language to make full use of these concepts. However, Smalltalk is not
just a programming language. The designer, Alan Kay, created an entire
environment. Kay pictured a future where users could interact with small,
powerful desktop machines. Smalltalk is the system which modern windowing
systems are modelled after. It made extensive use of windows, a mouse,
and pop-up menus. Such user interfaces were almost unheard of during the
late 60's when Smalltalk was developed.
Source: "Concepts of Programming Languages" by Robert W. Sebesta,
The
Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc, 1993