This is obviously a much bigger topic, and I can only scratch the surface. But the point is to show that by putting any

No, it does not mean you are drawing images to create programs. Instead, we use the word image to mean a serialization of data in memory. You can think of programming Smalltalk much like an interactive session in a REPL environment. If you have programmed JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or Lua, you should be familiar with REPL-based development. You define variables, functions, etc. in an interactive environment.,The image below is from a modern incarnation of Smalltalk called Pharo. It shows a typical Smalltalk code editor. At the far left, you got packages. Next to the packages, you got a list of classes defined within the selected package. Next, you got categories for methods. And finally, at the far right, you got methods in that category.,It means that a Smalltalk IDE has a full, always up-to-date, in-memory representation of your code. And this representation is Smalltalk objects. So both you and the IDE can traverse all your classes, objects, and methods. It is what gives Smalltalk IDEs such powerful refactoring tools. Doing things such as renaming a method or moving a method isn’t a text substitution operation like in other IDEs. Instead, it is an object manipulation. You manipulate live objects.,Instead, you can think of Smalltalk development as manipulating an object database with an IDE. But it gets crazier than this. This whole interactive environment is itself written in Smalltalk and is part of that same environment.,That is why LISP is often thought of as a language to make languages. Another advantage of the highly regular syntax is that you can use special LISP editors that navigate tree structures rather than lines and columns. Hence you got keyboard combinations that move to the next sibling in the syntax tree, to a parent, or to a child. You can do things such as select all the child nodes.,As this is a database intensive process, it may take a certain time period to complete the action, depending on the size of the contacts list and the performance of the device. Because of this, it is better to get all the contacts via the getAll method in the API before it is needed, and you can store the full list inside cache memories for future use.,Smalltalk takes this a step further. Your code isn’t saved in some separate file you may occasionally load up in your REPL environment. No, the whole development process happens in this interactive environment and the whole thing gets dumped to disk. Essentially you have no separate text files that you manage.,This is roughly how it works: At the bottom, you got a virtual machine (VM), which loads an image, which is basically an object database. This image contains the whole Smalltalk development environment itself. Through the IDE, which itself exists in the Smalltalk image, you perform actions that add more objects to this image.,In the lower part, you see the code for that method. However, it is important to realize that this code is stored as data on class. It is not stored in a text file. You cannot scroll further down and see the next method. Each method is viewed separately because they are separate entities.,Because the whole development environment is made from classes, methods, and objects you can browse from the development environment and which exist live, you can modify your own development environment and see the changes happen immediately. That means you can change behavior and add new functionality. In fact, even the compiler itself is written in Smalltalk, so you can even change how your classes and methods are compiled.,Smalltalk is not the first language with image-based development. In fact, that was pioneered with LISP. However, Smalltalk is perhaps the language where it has the most natural fit and provides the most power.,Fortunately, Pharo has lots of tools for saving images, restoring them, resetting them, and performing version control. Version control is interesting in Smalltalk since in principle there are no text files. So how would you use, for instance, Git and GitHub with Smalltalk?,This was utilized on the Playstation 2 by the Naughty Dog company, which made Game Oriented Assembly LISP to create games such as Jak and Daxter. Basically, this was wrapping PS2 assembly code in LISP syntax, giving the opportunity to write a low-level language in a high-level one.,This means that the first time you use Smalltalk, it can be a bit confusing. For example, Pharo begins with a simple launcher program where you select the image to launch. This is natural. Otherwise, how would we deal with you screwing up your whole image since that could mean your whole development environment no longer works?,Iceberg will export the Smalltalk image to a format Git can deal with. This means classes are turned into directories, and each method is turned into a separate file. This allows you to use Iceberg to track code changes at the level of individual methods.