pharaoh VS pharo

You can find the link to the source code and instructions on how to get started on Github 👉 Pharaoh

Pharo/SmallTalk seem to also explore the ideas akin to this. (https://pharo.org/)

to be fair the current state of affairs is similar enough with file extensions + mime info if you squint hard enough and pretend that app and systems folders files don't exist but it's held with pinky promises.

Smalltalk and as a particular case Pharo is an example of this for me. (https://pharo.org/). When I was in uni a paper that I always came back to was Licklider's 1960s paper on human-computer symbiosis (https://worrydream.com/refs/Licklider_1960_-_Man-Computer_Sy...)

"[...]to enable men and computers to cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex situations without inflexible dependence on predetermined programs."

Experimenting with Smalltalk (and also with Clojure and Emacs) was one of the things to me that genuinely felt like that vision of programs as living, interactive, organic things rather than the formulaic, static and low level programming that I was used to learning.

I think in part it's because the idea that programming is text and math-based is too ingrained in society.

For example, we talk about programming languages. But IMO there are also programming systems such as Smalltalk [1]. I've programmed 2 years professionally in it, currently looking for an engagement in a different language (a curiosity thing, also a resume thing).

I think Smalltalk has a lot to offer by switching the programmer's view of thinking about programming systems rather than programming languages.

Moreover, programming systems is also not where it is at. One downside that Pharo in particular has is that the community is small. A lot of plugins/libraries that are a given in other languages aren't there! For some, however, this is a strength because one gets to learn much better how to build stuff from the ground up and tinker on it by yourself. Given that there is still a lot of low hanging fruit it is easy to become a contributor.

But this part, whether a community is big or small means that I think it's smarter to think about programming ecosystems where a programming language or programming system is the central hub connecting the programming community together.

Why don't schools teach about programming communities? See my first sentence ;-)

[1] https://pharo.org - a modern Smalltalk

I read Pharo for just a split second

And Pharo is a good Smalltalk!

What you need is a cross platform GUI framework that still is a mutable environment allowing easy extend ability with a simple language. May I suggest Pharo Smalltalk?