It's unfortunate but understandable that the stuff which is most different from other programming environments grabs attention and the basic stuff is hardly mentioned.

> break it irreversibly

Nope. "Cuis-Smalltalk records any action occurring in the environment: the code you edit in the System Browser, the code you execute in a Workspace. Therefore, in the event of a Cuis-Smalltalk crash you can restore unsaved changes when you launch the same Cuis-Smalltalk image again."

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Log.html

> bespoke and unreproducible

So there have been all manner of ways to save code changes as plain text in files (or other formats in databases).

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Set.html

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Package.html

For example:

https://drcuis.github.io/TheCuisBook/The-Change-Log.html

Java being free-as-in-beer.

March 7, 1988 — "Smalltalk/V 286 is available now and costs $199.95, the company said. Registered users of Digitalk's Smalltalk/V can upgrade for $75 until June 1."

https://books.google.com/books?id=CD8EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA25&dq=d...

September 1991 — "Smalltalk/V code is portable between the Windows and the OS/2 versions. And the resulting application carries no runtime charges. All for just $499.95."

(Advert on the last page of "The Smalltalk Report")

https://rmod-files.lille.inria.fr/Archives/TheSmalltalkRepor...

Good pointers. But Claude Code is even more expensive.

Back in the day those were not unusual costs for programming tools. (Beer wasn't free.)

There's no such thing as free beer

> You can not combine two (or more) images.

Depends what you mean. Details matter.

> You can not build new things by using "images" as components.

Depends what you mean. Details matter.