Part of the confusion stems from the term "Smalltalk" being overloaded. When most people hear the word, they think "Smalltalk-80" - the version released over 30 years ago. What they probably don't know is that Smalltalk-80 was just one in a series of Smalltalks marching their way closer and closer to the "Dynabook" dream - a live, dynamic, turtles-all-the-way-down environment to provide “support for the creative spirit in everyone”. So Pharo is a modern iteration of the Smalltalk series.

Although it uses Smalltalk-80 syntax (almost), syntax is the least important part of Smalltalk. The real juice is the idea of a computing environment small and beautiful enough for one person to understand entirely - and fun! Toward that end, we feel that Pharo is evolving far enough beyond St-80 that it's more useful to think about it on its own terms.

Unfortunately, ideas that are truly different than the status quo are impossible to describe in a sound bite. Like learning to play a musical instrument, there is no shortcut - extended play is the price one must pay to shift to a more powerful perspective. But I hope this gives you a taste. If you're interested, I go a bit more in depth [on my blog](http://seandenigris.com/blog/?p=1092)