Adele Goldberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois. After completing her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Michigan, Adele started to think computing science as a possible career. She participated in developing the programming language and various concepts related to object-oriented programming as a computer scientist in the 1970s.
Goldberg is best known for her work with one of her partners, Alan Kay, in developing Smalltalk-80, the object-oriented approach of Simula 67 and introducing a programming environment of overlapping windows on graphic display screens when she was in Palo Alto Research Center. Goldberg and her partners were also involved in the development of design templates. She also foresees a world where ordinary individuals would use notebook computers to exchange and reform personal media in her article “Personal Dynamic Media”. This article described the vision for the Dynabook. Furthermore, She co-founded, and is currently working at Neometron, Inc. , which is an Internet support provider in 1999.
Goldberg is one of the forerunners of the design patterns commonly used in software design and one of the leaders on the development of interaction design. The Smalltalk-80 developed by Goldberg and her partners is a graphical, interactive programming environment. The programming language was used to build one of the first modern graphic user interfaces featuring windows, menus, icons. Nowadays, her works tremendously influence the following interaction designers. And her endowment can be perceived in each click and point the window tab on the computer.
Unfortunately, Goldberg’s contribution to computing and design industry has not been widely known. However, one of her partners, Alan Kay is relatively influential and famous. The phenomenon can be related to the stereotypes of women in the field of computer science and design. Since most people commonly think that men have comparatively dominant advantages in computing and design.
Bibliography
1.“The Centre for Computing History.” Centre For Computing History. Accessed September 30, 2020. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/47368/Adele-Goldberg/.
2.Goldberg, Adele, and David Robson. “Smalltalk-80 The Language and Its Implementation .” Adele Goldberg: About Smalltalk – CHM Revolution, n.d. http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook.pdf.
3.“Adele Goldberg (Computer Scientist).” Wikiwand. Accessed September 30, 2020. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Adele_Goldberg_(computer_scientist).
4.Mashy, J., 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGNiH85PLVg> [Accessed 30 September 2020].
