Objective-Smalltalk ( http://objective.st/ ) is a newish smalltalk that was very much inspired by this very message (no pun intended). And by Mary Shaw's work on software architecture, and, and...
So what might make a good metasystem? The ones we have are usually too specific, too concrete, the metasystem for this particular language, sort of like having a "types" rooted in concrete machine types (cough, C, cough). Smalltalk solved this for the type-system, with the root being something abstract, "Object". If you apply the same idea of creating a hierarchy to the metasystem(s), you come up with something along software-archtitectural ideas of component (procedures, methods, objects, filters, programs) and connector (calls, message-sends, pipes, variable access, ...).
And it turns out that this gives you parsimony, great power, and pretty darn good security of meaning.
So what might make a good metasystem? The ones we have are usually too specific, too concrete, the metasystem for this particular language, sort of like having a "types" rooted in concrete machine types (cough, C, cough). Smalltalk solved this for the type-system, with the root being something abstract, "Object". If you apply the same idea of creating a hierarchy to the metasystem(s), you come up with something along software-archtitectural ideas of component (procedures, methods, objects, filters, programs) and connector (calls, message-sends, pipes, variable access, ...).
And it turns out that this gives you parsimony, great power, and pretty darn good security of meaning.