Editing Adele Goldberg (computer scientist) (section)

==Impact on Object-Oriented Programming==
One of Goldberg’s most significant contributions was her role in refining and promoting object-oriented programming (OOP), a methodology that has become foundational in modern software development. Before Smalltalk-80, programming was often rigid, relying on procedural paradigms that made it difficult to scale and maintain software systems. Goldberg’s work helped establish OOP as a more flexible and modular approach to software engineering.

The principles introduced in Smalltalk-80—objects as self-contained units of code, message passing as a means of communication between objects, and dynamic memory allocation—have influenced nearly all modern programming languages. Today, languages such as Java, Python, C++, and Ruby incorporate these fundamental OOP principles. Java, in particular, has adopted Smalltalk’s approach to encapsulation and object interaction, while Python’s class-based structure reflects the modularity and reusability that Goldberg and her colleagues championed.

Smalltalk’s interactive development environment also set the stage for modern integrated development environments (IDEs). Features such as real-time debugging, live code execution, and graphical programming interfaces have become standard in today’s software development tools. These innovations allow programmers to iterate more efficiently, reducing development time and increasing productivity.

Another major contribution of Smalltalk was its impact on software design patterns. Goldberg’s work influenced how developers think about structuring software applications, leading to best practices in software architecture such as the Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework. The MVC framework is widely used in modern web development, serving as the foundation for frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, and Angular.

Smalltalk introduced the concept of just-in-time (JIT) compilation, which is now a critical component in optimizing the performance of modern virtual machines, including the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and the .NET runtime. This technique allows programs to be dynamically optimized at runtime, significantly improving execution speed and efficiency.

Goldberg’s contributions to OOP have also played a role in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Many modern AI frameworks, including TensorFlow and PyTorch, use object-oriented principles to structure and manage complex data processing tasks.