Python is a pure OOP . Actually this is an easy mistake that newcomers make when they come to python.
Python like smalltalk follows the mantra "Everything is an object". So everything inside python is an object, including built-in types. The difference is that python unlike smalltalk and Java does not force OOP as it allows procedural programming. And this is the trap, it easy to assume that makes python less OOP , but being a snake, is so devlish that does not tell you that even functions are objects ;)
http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/programming_books/python_programming/python_ch10s04.html
Going back to smalltalk its IDE is the huge deal here, contrary what other smalltalker may believe. If you like me are heavily disappointed with how non flexible IDEs are you are going to love Squeak's IDE. The IDE goes a great deal making easy to navigate through all the libraries and making you understand what , where and why , something happens. I cant see the benefit of using a text editor. But you can, with file ins and file outs. But doing so you cripple smalltalk into becoming as efficient as other programming languages ;)
I am only studying squeak and pharo for a week now but even for me as a beginner the benefits of the IDE is obvious from the first minute.
The fact that code is fragmented into easy to digest methods, those methods grouped into protocols , protocols grouped to our familiar Classes and Classes grouped to packages. Hence the code is so well organized that I never feel lost, everything belongs somewhere, everything is just a click away, everything is inspectable, browseable , you just select right click and sends you there. And it shows you exactly the code you need rarely more than 10 lines long. This is the IDE. Why would you prefer a text editor that will expose to information that you don't need , don't care and is likely to confuse you ?
Then everything is inside a single image , not a collection of files, your code, your libraries, system libraries , even the language itself. Everything is at your grasp, waiting for you, begging you to test, modify it, use it and abuse it. You are part of the language and the language is part of your, if something does not fit your thinking, change it. This is the IDE. Why you want to go back to the disconnected way of files and folders ?
Then you are start being afraid with all this power, all this flexibility its not unlikely that you will do something that could completely destroy the language and the libraries. Its possible , mistakes can and will happen. Again the IDE jumps in offering you a hand of help, every change is stored in a local cvs system, every change is categorized, stored and monitored any time. No lousy undos and any kind of other nonsense . What you get is old , mature well tested version control. You can change back exactly what you want any time, nothing is lost, no mistake is irreversible.
And if you don't trust you hard driver , the vcs extends online to squeaksource . And does it let you at the mercy of command line ? Hell no . You are offered the simple yet efficient Monticello browser , which will make sure you install and unistall with no conflicts .
And of course you don't want your software to have bugs , do you ? Unit Testing tool is offered to make sure your code is reliable , stable and does exactly what you want how you want it. Again a beautiful yet brilliant GUI is utilized to make complicate tasks a button away.
And because none is perfect , there will be time you will come against the dreadful error. Are you left alone ? You guessed right , a tool again is offered. The debugger. You don't need to call it, you don't need to setup it , you don't even need to figure out how it works. Like all other tools, is simple in design yet sophisticated. Not only it will spot the error , not only will tell you what you did wrong , not only will navigate through back to most basic language elements that trigger the error offering a unique perspective on how exactly the language behave like nothing I have seen before, it also allows you to do live coding. Live coding is the ability to code a program while its code runs. Isn't that impressive and infinitely useful ?
Finally , maybe you are one of those people impossible to please, maybe you still find flaws , omissions and thinks you simple don't like. The IDE is written in smalltalk , smalltalk is written in smalltalk , and the IDE can edit itself and the language, there is nothing you can't change besides some very basic functionality of the language and the VM that is compiled C. And you will guess right if you think you can use all the above tools to do exactly that.
And the tools don't stop here , smalltalk might be not that popular as other languages but it has been here for a very long time and it has some very enthusiastic programmers that love to contribute. And frankly with such an amazing IDE and such a well designed language , while with other languages contributing to them might seem a challenge, in case of smalltalk the challenge is to resist the temptation not to contribute as the IDE makes it so easy.
By the time others still code you will finish your code and actually understand what have you done and why. Thats not a small thing at all . I wish Python had such a good IDE or any other language. But the only thing that comes abit close, from my experience , is Delphi. And even in the case of Delphi I still prefer squeak and pharo.
What I find annoying about other IDEs is that they are not IDES at all, they are nothing more than glorified editors, locked, non flexible , non editable (Unless you are willing to use another programming language and navigate through tons of source code) . Squeak , Pharo and all other smalltalk dialects offer a real elegant IDE offering you really useful tools. Other IDEs better take a deep a look at smalltalk and really understand what it means to be an IDE.
Saying all those good things, smalltalk is far from perfect. And I think its biggest weakness and flaw is lack of some enjoyable and useful documentation that can help beginners jump in head first. Squeak By Example as well Pharo By Example has been a big disappointment for me. They both are still two extremely important books that provide a extremely valuable insight in both platforms , but the quality of documentation is from mediocre to bad at times. The main reason is both books follow a non noob friendly approach. First they send you deep diving in the IDE , introducing you from chapter 1 , to debugger and even unit testing !!! For me this a big mistake, and even though I am far from new to programming had to struggle to follow up what was explained. Then the book itself , lets a lot of unanswered questions. For example the explanation of instance vs class variables is not enough, I would prefer several example that not only show the how but also the why . Several areas of the book are also full of gaps or just hard to follow.
My life got a lot easier when I found this link http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks.html and from there I downloaded "Smalltalk by Example" which unlike the other book not only it does what it says in the title but makes no assumption on who you are and what you know. I can only highly recommend it. I read that the other books there that are offered freely are very good as well, I will certainly download and read all of them eventually.
Alot of help has been also #squeak at irc.freenode.net, people there has been answering my questions and helping me understand.
Squeak wiki, is ok but not enough, its also not very well organised, and I dont like that comments and discussions appear inside the wiki documentation. So documentation generally can be abit of a struggle for the begginer and certainly Smalltalk IS NOT AN EASY programming language to learn. I hear many smalltalkers say otherwise and I could not disagree more, when I compare smalltalk with python is like night and day. BUT ! Once understand smalltalk , it become much easier to program in it then any other programming language I have learned so far, and I have learned most of them. So in the end I think Smalltalk is a clear win , I also love the FFI library that lets you call any C library with ease, which unleashes serious power for smalltalk.
I dont think you need to learn the language first and then the IDE, its actually a very bad idea for the simple fact that the IDE helps you understand the language and its libraries and any type of code in it. Language and IDE is like brother and sister, yin and yang.