selfhalt

"When something needs a closer look."
self halt.

About

With more than 30 years of Smalltalk experience, I help teams keep their Smalltalk systems healthy, understood, and moving forward. Many businesses still run critical software written in Smalltalk — often reliable, often undocumented, and often maintained by fewer people every year. I step in to fix what's broken, extend what works, and plan a sensible path for what comes next.

Services

• VA Smalltalk, VisualWorks, & Visual Smalltalk development — new features, bug fixes, and performance work in VAST, Cincom VisualWorks, and Visual Smalltalk.
• Legacy modernization — version upgrades, refactoring, test coverage, and incremental migration without a risky rewrite.
• Integration & FFI — connecting Smalltalk images to native libraries, operating system APIs, databases, and web services.
• UI work — maintaining and updating desktop interfaces, including native Windows UI.
• Code review & knowledge transfer — assessments of existing systems, documentation, and mentoring for developers new to Smalltalk.

How I work

Available for both short- and long-term assignments, from a focused assessment to ongoing support. Work is primarily remote, with on-site visits possible when a project calls for it. I start by reading the code and understanding the system before recommending changes, and I favor small, well-tested steps over big rewrites.

Contact

Have a Smalltalk system that needs attention? Email with a short description of your project.