Smalltalk is no more visual or tied to GUIs than C++ is. There's at least one variant, GNU Smalltalk, which doesn't have an IDE. Squeak is a rather nice IDE, though, and makes a good point in the way it blurs the boundary between programming language and operating system. We've had Lisp Machines; I think a Smalltalk machine would be cool.
You can visualize the space of programming languages as having local maxima where, if you modify the language in any way, you make it worse. I think Smalltalk occupies one such local maximum, Prolog another. Others are less clear-cut.
Of course, being good doesn't equate with being popular. Java is a Smalltalk-C hybrid and is very popular. It aimed very well at the average programmer, and hit its target.
we had Smalltalk machines. The same hardware which ran Xerox' Lisp Machine OS also ran Smalltalk. The processor microcode was different and it booted into Smalltalk on the metal.
You can visualize the space of programming languages as having local maxima where, if you modify the language in any way, you make it worse. I think Smalltalk occupies one such local maximum, Prolog another. Others are less clear-cut.
Of course, being good doesn't equate with being popular. Java is a Smalltalk-C hybrid and is very popular. It aimed very well at the average programmer, and hit its target.