Enfin Smalltalk

A version of Smalltalk introduced in the latter half of the 80s by Enfin Software for both Windows and OS/2. It was in its day noted for having excellent GUI implementation and in general good support for writing business applications including database connectivity, and in that respect much better than competitors Smalltalk/V and VisualWorks, but at the same time having an inferior runtime engine and class library, very early versions of the package lacked refraction even.

The product was taken over by Easel in 1992 who poured money into the development and marketing of the system, one of their successes was that they convinced IBM to adopt Enfin Smalltalk as the solution supported by IBM, thanks in no small part to a native 32 bit OS/2 solution, after Easel company added object modelling and relational mapping capabilities to the product they renamed it ObjectStudio. However the company had less success developing the product itself, class libraries got improved a lot and the GUI interface and tools remained world class but the runtime engine continued to suffer despite considerable money being thrown at it. When IBM introduced their own VisualAge Smalltalk in the mid 90s the company lost a considerable portion of the market share and they responded in 1994 by going into a partnership with Cincom who sold ObjectStudio as part of their Total FrameWork package. Cincom got more and more involved in the development of ObjectStudio and in 1999 took over the product altogether, but at the same time ceased all OS/2 development.

Links

 * Info on Enfin Smalltalk from the Programming Wiki
 * The History of ObjectStudio

Author

 * Enfin Software Corporation (Original developer)
 * Easel (1992 to 1999)
 * VMARK (Bought Enfin in the latter half of the 90s)
 * Cincom (1999 to current)