--- title: Pharo 14 | daily.dev description: Pharo 14 is out, the latest release of the pure object-oriented language and live-coding environment. The release introduces Mission Control and Pulse, a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/pharo-14-hirkwawvx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Pharo 14 | daily.dev og:description: Pharo 14 is out, the latest release of the pure object-oriented language and live-coding environment. The release introduces Mission Control and Pulse, a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/pharo-14-hirkwawvx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hiRkWaWVX.png og:image:alt: Pharo 14 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Pharo 14 **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Pharo 14 is out, the latest release of the pure object-oriented language and live-coding environment. The release introduces Mission Control and Pulse, a Spotter replacement, alongside a reworked Method Browser and rewritten Settings Browser. The refactoring and command infrastructure moved to a driver-based architecture with a unified command registry, plus expanded command-line testing and debugging tools. The virtual machine gained RISC-V JIT support, unified frame and stack management, and improved memory allocation and garbage collection. The team also switched its release schedule from spring to fall. This version integrated 978 pull requests and closed 616 issues since Pharo 13. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What's new in Pharo 14's virtual machine? Pharo 14 unifies frame and stack management for a cleaner interpreter and execution engine, adds RISC-V JIT support, and extends memory management with direct old-space allocation plus garbage collection improvements. It also includes extensive compiler and Slang/C translation work with correctness fixes, new tests, and improved inspection tools, along with platform and build modernization including SDL updates and better CI. _Developers tracking Smalltalk VM internals can follow Pharo's RISC-V and GC work on daily.dev._ ### What are Mission Control and Pulse in Pharo 14? Mission Control and Pulse are new development tools introduced in Pharo 14, with Pulse serving as the replacement for the previous tool called Spotter. The release also reworked the Method Browser, rewrote the Settings Browser, and consolidated Epicea and ProfStef into NewTools, continuing the migration of development tools to the Spec-based tooling stack. _Those evaluating Pharo's tooling overhaul can keep up with releases like this on daily.dev._ ### How many contributions went into the Pharo 14 release? Pharo 14 was built from 978 pull requests integrated into the Pharo repository, with 616 issues closed since Pharo 13. The project's GitHub repository has 432 forks and 1,494 stars. The release also marks a schedule change, moving from a spring release window (March to May) to a fall window (September to November). _Contributors weighing open-source project health often check metrics like these via daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 52 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-10-26). **TL;DR:** Discussion centers less on the release notes themselves and more on whether Smalltalk/Pharo still matters in an AI-coding era, with genuine enthusiasm for live-coding/agent integration tempered by skepticism that it's more than a niche hobby. **Sentiment:** 30% positive · 45% mixed · 25% skeptical **The case for** - AI agents pair unusually well with Smalltalk's live, introspectable environment, letting a model directly manipulate the running program. - Some have working agent/MCP integrations already (e.g. Pi with MCP, SmallJS with Claude) and find them genuinely useful. - Tools like Glamorous Toolkit show an interesting 'language = ui = software = data' model that some find uniquely powerful for AI-assisted development. - The one-line 'What is Pharo?' description on the landing page is appreciated for clarity. **The pushback** - Several doubt Pharo is much more than a niche hobby/research project at this point, comparing it to Haiku OS or Squeak. - Some feel the community around it is small and evangelistic, comparing it to CrossFit or Vim enthusiasts. - The lack of good automated/full test-running support in live Smalltalk environments is seen as a practical gap compared to alternatives like SmallJS. - A few note the project's site avoids mentioning 'Smalltalk' at all, which some find odd or evasive. - Minor UI/design criticisms: the site looks dated and example screenshots have font/kerning issues. **By community** - hackernews (mixed): Conversation splits between excitement about AI-agent synergy with live Smalltalk environments and skepticism about whether Pharo is anything beyond a dedicated hobbyist niche. **Hottest debate:** Whether Pharo (and Smalltalk generally) is still relevant or just a 'neat hobby' now that AI coding agents make the choice of language matter less. **Open questions** - What is the actual current state and maturity of agent-assisted development tooling for Pharo/Smalltalk? - Why does the Pharo project seem to downplay its Smalltalk heritage on its own website? **Highlights** > >"Reading stuff like this continue to make advances and new releases is like a fever dream when everything else is all AI." Do the advances mean anything though? Alan Kay is a personal hero of mine, I love the aesthetic of Smalltalk, and the dream-that-was once upon a time of such a system was a real missed opportunity for the evolution of programming environments. But is it anything more than a neat hobby at this point? > — [ramesh31 on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50245147) > > But is it anything more than a neat hobby at this point? The opposite. With LLMs you can now pick up any one of these obscure language and write a full blown AAA game engine in them. Or a database. Or a web framework. Or... anything you set your mind to. The language no longer matters. btw LLMs are exceptionally good at Smalltalk/Haskell/Perl/FORTRAN and other old/uncommon languages. > — [rfgplk on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50246222) > SmallJS ( https://small-js.org ) is a file based Smalltalk with full agent support. Here's a vid of Claude converting a Counter app into a Tic-tac-toe game in a single shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ir6h2MIRg PS The context loading step is not even necessary anymore. The reson why this works so well, is that Claude knows its way around VSCode well. And all SmallJS projects (apps) have full unit tests and GUI tests that run in a couple of seconds. Claude also reads these tests and can make new ones, maintaining coverage. In tradtional live Smalltalks like Pharo, modifying stuff is easy, but running full tests not so much.. > — [Smalltalker-80 on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248616) > I know at least 5 Pharo users, and one of them wrote a book about it (for the other 4 :P). They were part of a research group at university and made us students use it. I get why it's nice and all, but honestly it feels a bit like Crossfit, or Vim. There are a small handful of excited users who try to convice everyone else how amazing it is. (Sorry, Oscar et al.) > — [creichenbach on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248496) > I imagine that's a deliberate decision of the overall project to try and get people to evaluate it on its merits, rather than associating it with something old and unfashionable. > — [frou\_dh on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50248789) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50241925) · 198 points · 52 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Squeak 6.1 Release Notes](https://daily.dev/posts/squeak-6-1-release-notes-hrieoqxto) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Forgejo v14.0 is available](https://daily.dev/posts/forgejo-v14-0-is-available-omkskmjmw) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [\[Dev Weekly \#113\] Claude 4.8 Rewrites Agent Systems](https://daily.dev/posts/dev-weekly-113-claude-4-8-rewrites-agent-systems-askxel3ur) · The Miners · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#virtual-machine](https://daily.dev/tags/virtual-machine) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/pharo-14-hirkwawvx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Pharo 14","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/pharo-14-hirkwawvx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/pharo-14-hirkwawvx"},"datePublished":"2026-10-26T15:46:43.096Z","dateModified":"2026-10-26T20:47:47.152Z","description":"Pharo 14 is out, the latest release of the pure object-oriented language and live-coding environment. 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