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Yes Smalltalk has continuations. So it can do all of those things as well. But I don't think they're explicitly tied to blocks like they are in Ruby. This really isn't a problem for Smalltalk since it's not as syntax oriented as Ruby.

The invovation is to have those features tied to convenient syntax.

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So is the innovation to make something that was available in Lisps / Smalltalks, available within the different constraints of Ruby.

(I should check how Smalltalk blocks behave.)

I would say more broadly the innovation was two fold: 1) to make these features available in a syntactic form that would seem more familiar to programmers and 2) the powerful insight that when combined with Smalltalk style meta programming you can have a language that on the surface seems very conventional but underneath is just as powerful as Smalltalk or Lisp.

Although I would say he didn’t get 100% there although that this point Ruby isn’t too far from that.

These are ideas that I think are worth trying to take even further. In fact, I’ve been experimenting with that.

fwiw "Efficient Implementation of Smalltalk Block Returns"

https://wirfs-brock.com/allen/things/smalltalk-things/effici...

I’ll check it out. Thank you.

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