Archive-name: smalltalk-faq Last-modified: 1993/6/1 Version: 3.3 *** This is a Smalltalk frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) document, distributed by Craig Latta (latta@xcf.Berkeley.EDU). It is posted fortnightly to the USENET newsgroups comp.lang.smalltalk and news.answers. It is also available via ftp as anonymous@xcf:misc/smalltalk/FAQ/FAQ.entire. Finally, it can be obtained by mail by emailing smalltalk-request@xcf with the subject line "request for FAQ". The machine xcf.Berkeley.EDU has IP address 128.32.138.1. You may do anything you like with this document, except sell it or modify it (including the news headers and ending signature). Please send contributions, suggestions and comments to smalltalk-request@xcf.Berkeley.EDU. Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I realize that information has a short half-life. Thanks, -C *** New items are marked with a '+'. Modified existing items are marked with a '*'. Contents: 0.0) [Meta-issues] 0.1) How can I browse ftp sites and their data without using my own disk space (unless I want to keep data), and locate files on ftp sites, given pathname fragments? 1.0) [Archival] 1.1) What free or low-cost Smalltalk implementations are there? How can I get GNU Smalltalk? 1.2) What Smalltalk archives are there? 2.0) [Projects] 2.1) What is Smallmusic? 2.2)+ What is CoolDraw? 3.0) [References] 3.1) Can someone recommend a good introduction to Model-View-Controller concepts? 3.2) Is there a Smalltalk bibliography? 3.3) What are the "blue book", "purple book", etc? 3.4) Who are some employers of Smalltalk programmers? 3.5) What is the Smalltalk Report? 3.6) Is there a GNU Smalltalk tutorial? 3.7)+ What's a summary of multiple inheritance in Smalltalk? 4.0) [Programming issues] 4.1) What are some "classic Smalltalk bugs", both in the system and programmer domains? 5.0) ["Vendor"-specific issues] 5.1) How compatible is GNU Smalltalk with Smalltalk-80 (or Smalltalk/V)? --- 0.0) [Meta-issues] --- 0.1) How can I browse ftp sites and their data without using my own disk space (unless I want to keep data), and locate files on ftp sites, given pathname fragments? Answer: This question might seem tangential at first (and I suppose it is). But it is vitally important, as resources such as papers, documentation, code and software tools become more numerous and distributed. There is a set of Emacs-Lisp ("elisp") code, called "ange-ftp.el", which makes 'ftp' use transparent within GNU Emacs (GNU Emacs is available via anonymous ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu). This package attempts to make accessing files and directories using FTP from within GNU Emacs as simple and transparent as possible. A subset of the common file-handling routines are extended to interact with FTP. Using these routines, one is able to access remote files and one would any other local file, without having to write it locally to disk. The result is an immense virtual global filesystem. The routines are available via anonymous ftp (naturally!) as tut.cis.ohio-state.edu:/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/as-is/ange-ftp.tar.Z, (incidentally, if you already had "ange-ftp.el", you could paste the above line in response to Emacs' 'copy-file', stick "/anonyous@" in front of it, and copy the file.) My current version is dated 22 October 1991. Another useful bit of elisp is "saveconf.el". It saves the Emacs buffer list and window configuration between editing sessions. So, one can have several buffers, with several files open (as I usually do), quit and restart Emacs, and have the state preserved, cursor locations and windows included. Happily, it works well with "ange-ftp.el", so that even remote files are restored (after possibly having to prompt for passwords). "context.el" is also available via anonymous ftp from cis.ohio-state.edu, as pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-archive/saveconf.el.Z. Also look for "tree-dired.el" which provides for hierarchical directory editing. Incidentally, it was very easy to produce references for the above tools, thanks to another tool called "archie", developed at McGill University. Dubbed a "resource discovery tool" by its authors, it comes in very handy when one knows what tools are needed but not their availability. Archie consists of a server for this information (basically from a database of directory trees from "all known" anonymous ftp sites, updated once per month), and a client, which may be run via 'telnet' from the server machine itself (frowned upon...), or from a standalone client available from that machine (...highly encouraged, for the considerable host load win). Some clients even perform ftp tasks based on user response to search results. There are clients available for dumb and X terminals as well as for (of course) Emacs. Poke around archie.mcgill.ca for a client and documentation. Porting these tools (or at least new interfaces to them) to Smalltalk would be a great project. I'm working on it in my spare time. I'd love to hear from any interested people. -Craig --- 1.0) [Archival] --- 1.1) What free or low-cost Smalltalk implementations are there? How can I get GNU Smalltalk? Answer: GNU Smalltalk is free. The most current location, to my knowledge, is anonymous@prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/smalltalk-1.1.1.tar.Z. Please direct problems to the author, Steven Byrne, at sbb@eng.sun.com. Little Smalltalk, by Timothy Budd, is available as a book and sources, at bookstores. It is also available as anonymous@cs.dal.ca:pub/comp.archives/little-smalltalk. --- 1.2) What Smalltalk archives are there? Answer: There are many. Most of them simply archive GNU smalltalk, but there are also a few large archives containing many interesting and varied sources. All of the sites may be retrieved by invoking 'archie smalltalk' (see above reference to 'archie'). For convenience, descriptions of a few of the archives follow. If you have a site/announcement you'd like included, please let me know. ** Directory: anonymous@xcf.berkeley.edu:misc/smalltalk Summary: Smalltalk FAQ, smallmusic discussion archive. ** Host: mushroom.cs.man.ac.uk Summary: The Manchester Smalltalk archive. Information about it is posted regularly to comp.lang.smalltalk. ** File: anonymous@st.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/Index Summary: Information about the UIUC Smalltalk archive (which has local files and a mirror of the Manchester archive). ** File: anonymous@ccrma-ftp.stanford.edu:pub/st80/README Summary: Information about various Smalltalk-related offerings, including the Musical Object Development Environment (MODE). --- 2.0) [Projects] --- 2.1) What is Smallmusic? Answer: A work group has formed to discuss and develop an object-oriented software system for music. The current environment is Smalltalk 80. The email address for the group is smallmusic@xcf.Berkeley.EDU. If you are interested in joining the discussion, email smallmusic-request@xcf.Berkeley.EDU, with the subject line "add me". The abstract and outline to a recent version of our working paper follows. The document is available via ftp as anonymous@ccrma-ftp.stanford.edu:pub/st80/OOMR6.t. Thanks, Craig Latta latta@xcf.Berkeley.EDU *** Abstract to the working document This document describes an object-oriented description language for musical parameters, events and structures known as the Smallmusic Object Kernel (SmOKe) . In object-oriented software terms, the representation is described in terms of software class hierarchies of objects that share state and behavior and implement the description language as their protocol. The authors believe this representation, and its proposed linear ASCII description in Smalltalk-80 syntax, to be well-suited as a basis for: (1) concrete description languages in other languages, (2) specially-designed binary storage and interchange formats, and (3) use within and between interactive multi-media, hypermedia applications in several application domains. There is an article about an environment implementing SmOKe, called the Musical Object Development Environment (MODE), in the Computer Music Journal, volume 16 number 3. There's an "outrageously sexy" screen shot of the MODE on the cover. --- 2.2)+ What is CoolDraw? Answer: Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk From: bnfb@csr.uucp (Bjorn Freeman-Benson) Subject: CoolDraw - HotDraw with Constraints (or ThingLab: The Next Generation) Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Date: Tue, 6 Apr 93 05:15:29 GMT A while back I saw a query in this group about updated version of ThingLab. Well, I'm happy to announce that although the name has changed, the philosophy is the same, and CoolDraw is now available via anonymous FTP. Here is the READ.ME: CoolDraw Release 3 Documentation 5-Apr-93 I. What is CoolDraw? CoolDraw is a constraint-based object-oriented drawing framework. CoolDraw is similar to other MacDraw-like packages with one major exception: everything in CoolDraw is done with constraints. The user interface is done with constraints. Constraints can be added between figures. Even the constraint debugger (a future feature) will be done with constraints. The total integration of constraints makes it "pretty darn cool". The system is written in ParcPlace Smalltalk-80 release 4.1. CoolDraw is similar to other systems such as IntelliDraw, Chimera, and Briar. Also note that CoolDraw is a technology demonstration and research tool -- not a fully debugged product. Occasionally it requires some loving care. And, quite naturally, it has some unimplemented features. II. How do I use it? Open a CoolDrawingEditor using the "open" message. On the left is a tool palette. The top tools are the usual drawing tools: selection, move to front, move to back, erase, etc. The middle tools are figure creation tools: line, rectangle, ellipse, and so on. The bottom four tools are the constraint creation and deletion tools: three for creation (one variable, two variable, and three variable constraints) and one for deletion. While you automatically use constraints by just creating figures and moving them around on the screen (because the entire system uses constraints internally), if you want to create explicit constraints, you have to use one of the tools. The cursor of the tool changes to indicate how many figures have been selected and when enough are selected a dialog box appears with a standard selection of constraints. If you want some other constraint, then press the "Custom" button and a second dialog box offering a complete selection of constraints will appear. When the constraint deletion tool is clicked on a figure, it offers a list of all the explicit constraints attached to that figure. Any number can be selected and deleted at once. III. How do I get it? Anonymous FTP from ursamajor.uvic.ca in ~ftp/ursa/constraints/CoolDraw There are two options. Get the image: cooldraw.image.tar.Z or get the source code: cooldraw.source.tar.Z IV. What are the bugs? Numerous. The major flaws are that the constraint system is not currently powerful enough to solve cycles or simultaneous equations, and that there is not a large selection of figures. Minor ones include that the three constraint tool is not implemented. The most noticable un-bug is that the constraints do not always do what you expect. This is a well-known problem is constraint research and has no known solution short of a mind-reading computer. The constraint hierarchies that CoolDraw uses can help, and future versions will have more default weak constraints to create "expected" behavior. V. What are the future plans? We intend to continue work on three fronts: (1) fix the details (make more figures available; fix the dialog boxes; provide a wider assortment of built-in constraints; implement the three constraint tool; etc.); (2) improve the constraint solver to deal with more complex constraints yet retain its efficiency; (3) add other cool things such as constraint debugging tools, animation, etc. VI. What else should I know? Without explicitly inspecting the drawing, there is no access to the internal consistency constraints of the figures. VIII. Credits and Copyright See the startup screen. The CoolDraw code is copyright 1993 by Bjorn N. Freeman-Benson, and its commercial use is restricted. For information about the HotDraw or SkyBlue code, contact the respective authors: Ralph Johnson and Michael Sannella. Naturally, we would be happy to hear from anyone who uses, plays around with, or just looks at the system. Regards, Bjorn N. Freeman-Benson --- 3.0) [References] --- 3.1) Can someone recommend a good introduction to Model-View-Controller concepts? Answer: From: ege@blitz.fiu.edu (Dr. Raimund K. Ege) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: MVC -- good introductions? Date: 8 Mar 92 18:26:40 GMT Organization: Florida International Univ. Look at Chapter 10 in the following book that just came out: Programming in an Object-Oriented Environment, by Raimund K. Ege Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA, 1992, hardcover, ISBN 0-12-232930-9 To order call 1-800-321-5068. (also: Academic Press Limited, London, United Kingdom) It presents a complete and thorough introduction to all object-oriented concepts. It contains a large example/case study, and a comparison of major OO programming languages. In addition, the book extends the object-oriented view to all elements of the programming environment: data structures and algorithms, programming tools, user interfaces, data bases and software design. Chapter 10 is on user interfaces: it describes and illustrates the Smalltalk MVC paradigm (also: InterViews) -- Raimund K. Ege School of Computer Science Florida Int'l University ege@scs.fiu.edu (305) 348-3381 University Park ege@servax.bitnet FAX (305) 348-3549 Miami, FL 33199 ** From: asmundvn@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Nils Erik Asmundvaag) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: MVC -- good introductions? Date: 11 Mar 92 10:56:38 GMT Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept. The book Smalltalk-80: A Practical Introduction (ISBN 0-273-03105-8) by Philip D. Gray & Ramzan Mohamed, 1990 and published by Pitman (at least in the UK) contains two chapters on interactive applications and the MVC. I found it very helpful when first learning about the MVC. Nils E. Asmundvaag -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nils Erik Asmundvaag University of Glasgow, Scotland asmundvn@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk asmundvn@uk.ac.glasgow.dcs ** From: bruce@utafll.uta.edu (Bruce Samuelson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: how are st80 views and controllers used? Date: 12 Mar 92 14:12:48 GMT Organization: UTexas at Arlington, Linguistics There are two papers on MVC that provide an introductory overview of the pre-version 4.0 ST80 scheme. Much of what's in them also applies to version 4.0. I understand that one of PPS's priorities in the forthcoming version 4.1 will be improved documentation. We'll see how well they explain the new windowing scheme launched in version 4.0. It would certainly be helpful to get an overview of what's going on before plunging into the source code of the myriad new classes. (1) A Cookbook for using the Model-View-Controller User Interface Paradigm in Smalltalk-80 by Glenn E. Krasner and Stephen T. Pope, Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, volume 1 number 3, pp. 26-49, 1988 (2) Applications Programming in Smalltalk-80: How to Use Model-View-Controller (MVC) by Steve Burbeck, Softsmarts, Inc., copyright 1987. The second paper is probably no longer available. I think Softsmarts is the company that used to sell a version of Smalltalk for 80286 machines but went out of business some years ago. The phone number on the paper is listed as 415-327-8100 (Palo Alto, California). You may try asking ParcPlace (or, less likely, Digitalk) if they have copies of Burbeck's paper. -- ********************************************************** * Bruce Samuelson Department of Linguistics * * bruce@ling.uta.edu University of Texas at Arlington * ********************************************************** --- 3.2) Is there a Smalltalk bibliography? Answer: There are many... here is one: From: schultz@grebyn.com (Ronald Schultz) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Smalltalk Relevant Texts Date: 10 Jan 92 16:08:05 GMT Organization: Grebyn Timesharing A list of Smalltalk-relevant texts. Retrieved from the Digitalk forum on Compuserve. If you know of any additional texts, please let me know. Thanx. ========================================================================== Ron Schultz Berard Software Engineering, Inc. Columbus Ohio Office Headquarters 5634 Claire Court 301 Lakeforest Drive Dublin, Ohio 43017 Gaithersburg, Md. 20877 Phone (614) 798-0295 (301) 417-9885 FAX (614) 798-0296 (301) 417-0021 ========================================================================= Smalltalk 80 The Language, Adele Goldberg & David Robson Addison-Wesley 1989 ISBN 0-201-13688-0 Smalltalk 80 The Interactive Programming Environment, Adele Goldberg Addison Wesley 1984 ISBN 0-201-11372-4 Smalltalk 80 Bits of History, Words of Advice , Glenn Krasner Addison Wesley 1984 ISBN 0-201-11669-3 Inside Smalltalk Volume I, Wilf Lalonde & John Pugh Prentice Hall 1991 ISBN 0-13-468414-1 Inside Smalltalk Volume II, Wilf Lalonde & John Pugh Prentice Hall 1991 ISBN 0-13-465964-3 Object-Oriented Graphics, P. Wisskirchen Springer-Verlag 1990 ISBN 3-540-52859-8 Practical Smalltalk: Using Smalltalk/V, Dan Shafer and Dean A. Ritz. Springer-Verlag ISBN 0-387-97394-X Rapid Prototyping for Object Oriented Systems, Mark Mullen Addison Wesley 1990 ISBN 0-201-55024-5 Object-Oriented Design, Peter Coad and Ed Yourdon Yourdon Press 1991 ISBN 0-13-630070-7 Object Oriented Programming for Artificial Intelligence, Ernest Tello Addison Wesley 1989 ISBN 0-201-09228-x The Well Tempered Object, Stephen Travis Pope MIT Press 1991 ISBN 0-262-16126-5 RefTalk/Vwin, David Carl O'Neal NuVista Press 1991 ISBN pending Human-Computer Interface Design Guidelines, C. Marlin Brown Ablex Publishing 1989 ISBN 0-89391-332-4 Designing Object-Oriented Software, Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Brian Wilkerson, and Lauren Wiener Prentice-Hall 1990 ISBN 0-13-629825-7 Object Oriented Programming with Smalltalk/V, Dusko Savic Ellis Horwood 1990 ISBN 0-13-040692-9 An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming & Smalltalk Lewis Pinson & Richard Wiener Addison Wesley 1988 ISBN 0-201-19127-x SAA Common User Access Advanced Interface Design Guide IBM 1989 IBM Document # SC26-4582-0 IBM Red Books----(available from your IBM representative contact your local office of IBM and request the placing of an IBM Red Book Order. If you are an IBM customer, the books are free. If you are not an IBM customer, the books may have a nominal fee.)---- A Practical Introduction to Object Oriented Programming IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3641 Object Oriented Design - A preliminary Approach IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3647 Developing a CUA Workplace Application IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3580-00 Managing the Development of Object Oriented Applications IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3581-00 Object Oriented Analysis of the ITSO Common Scenario IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3566 CUA Evaluation IBM 1990 IBM Document # GG24-3456 SAA CUA '91 Guide IBM 1991 IBM Document # SC34-4289 SAA CUA '91 Reference IBM 1991 IBM Document # SC34-4290 SAA - A Guide for Evaluating Applications IBM 1991 IBM Document # G320-9803 --- 3.3) What are the "blue book", "purple book", etc? Answer: Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 12:52:39 PST From: khaw@parcplace.com (Mike Khaw) blue Goldberg, Adele, and David Robson, _Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation_, Addison-Wesley, 1983. ISBN 0-201-11371-6. *Out of print* orange Goldberg, Adele, _Smalltalk-80: the Interactive Programming Environment_, Addison-Wesley, 1984. ISBN 0-201-11372-4. green Krasner, Glenn, ed., _Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice_, Addison-Wesley, 1983, ISBN 0-201-11669-3 purple Goldberg, Adele, and David Robson, _Smalltalk-80: The Language_, Addison-Wesley, 1989, ISBN 0-201-13688-0 The books are actually cream or tan. The color referred to is the color used as the background of the illustration on the front cover (as well as for the Addison-Wesley logo on the spine). The purple book is an update/revision of the blue book, with the section on the abstract bytecode machine omitted (because it was out of date, according to Adele). ---------- Mike --- 3.4) Who are some employers of Smalltalk programmers? Answer: From: johnson@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ralph Johnson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Smalltalk employers file Date: 18 Sep 92 16:32:43 GMT Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL I've noticed a rash of job offers here (I approve of them) and decided that I should distribute my list of companies hiring Smalltalkers. I have collected this over the years and give it to my students. However, the size of the list is significantly greater than the number of my students, so I decided to make it public. I would be happy to add entries, remove entries, or make other changes to it. If you are an employer then you might want to take a look at it to see whether you like what I say about you, and let me know if you don't. I'll change it, though I like *short* entries and have shortened almost everything in here. The file is in the Smalltalk archive in /st-docs/smalltalk-jobs. You can ftp it from st.cs.uiuc.edu or you can use the e-mail archive server (see the recent FAQ). Europeans note that this will automatically show up in the Manchester archive in a day or so. -Ralph Johnson --- 3.5) What is the Smalltalk Report? From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Opinions on Smalltalk Report (Summary) Date: 12 Feb 93 11:34:32 GMT Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna Ok, here are the comments I received about the Smalltalk Report. While the sample base is quite small, the response seems overwhelmingly favorable. Thanks to all who responded. Markus --------------------------------------------------------------------- I have subscribed since the first issue and I find it to be an excellent combination of theoretical and practical articles. John Pugh (of LaLonde and Pugh) is the editor. On the other hand, I will warn you to expect subscription headaches with SIGS Publications. They are probably the worst I've ever dealt with and our technical librarian agrees. They are barely capable of processing a renewal let alone a new subscription or problem. --------------------------------------------------------------------- We subscribe, last issue was about 20 pages, 2 articles, 3 columns. I would call it a must read publication. --------------------------------------------------------------------- I think its pretty good. (But then I should mention, I write for it!) It tends toward intermediate, with lots of practical tips and examples. --------------------------------------------------------------------- (This was not an answer to my question, but I include it for completeness.) It is a journal published 9 times per year. Cost in US is $69. Editor with whom I deal is Paul White (white@scs.carleton.ca). The Smalltalk Report, Subscribers Services, Dept. SML, PO Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-9821. --------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Markus Stumptner mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at University of Technology Vienna vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria ...mcsun!vexpert!mst Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk From: knight@mrco.carleton.ca (Alan Knight) Subject: Re: Smalltalk Report Organization: Carleton University Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1993 22:30:55 GMT The Smalltalk report Subscriber Services Dept SML PO Box 3000 Denville NJ USA 07834-9821 FAX 212 274 0646 ISSN 1056-7976 US$69/year in e US US$94/year outside the US --- 3.6) Is there a GNU Smalltalk tutorial? Answer: Yes. From: sbb@laplace.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Byrne) Date: 28 Feb 1993 03:00:10 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA Andy Valencia has very graciously provided an extended tutorial document describing the Smalltalk language with respect to GNU Smalltalk. It covers a wide variety of topics, and provides a general introduction to object oriented programming concepts. You may FTP a copy from the usual GNU locations in a few days (after it has propagated). Currently, it may be found at: prep.ai.mit.edu: pub/gnu/smalltalk-tutorial.ps.Z (PostScript) -or- prep.ai.mit.edu: pub/gnu/smalltalk-tutorial.txt.Z (ASCII) Check it out -- this looks really good! Steve -- 3.7)+ What's a summary of multiple inheritance in Smalltalk? Answer: From: mario@cs.man.ac.uk (Mario Wolczko) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: Multiple Inheritance in Smalltalk?? Date: 20 Apr 93 12:40:27 GMT Organization: Dept Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K. In article <1qua3qINN9t1@umbc8.umbc.edu>, cs331106@umbc.edu (cs331106) writes: > > I have been researching the smalltalk language, and have found > conflicting reports as to whether or not smalltalk is a single > or multiple inheritance style language. Any answer would be > appreciated! Yes and no, mostly no. The initial versions of Smalltalk did not have multiple inheritance. An MI scheme, written entirely in Smalltalk (ie not requiring any virtual machine support), was subsequently added. It is described in @inproceedings{BorningIngalls82:multipleinheritance, author = "A. H. Borning and D. H. H. Ingalls", address = "Pittsburgh, PA", year = 1982, booktitle = "Proceedings of National Conference on Artificial Intelligence", pages = "234-237", title = "Multiple inheritance in {S}malltalk-80" } This was shipped as part of the Smalltalk-80 virtual image, at least from version 2.0 (the first "public" release, I believe), through 2.3. It was removed in 2.4 (or possibly 2.5). There were several technical problems with the implementation, and it didn't look like anyone was really using it anyway. It was never thoroughly integrated into the system (eg browsers and other tools). Mario Wolczko ______ Dept. of Computer Science Internet: mario@cs.man.ac.uk /~ ~\ The University uucp: mcsun!uknet!man.cs!mario ( __ ) Manchester M13 9PL JANET: mario@uk.ac.man.cs `-': :`-' U.K. Tel: +44-61-275 6146 (FAX: 6236) ____; ;_____________the mushroom project___________________________________ --- 4.0) [Programming issues] --- 4.1) What are some "classic Smalltalk bugs", both in the system and programmer domains? Answer: See anonymous@st.cs.uiuc.edu:pub/st-docs/classic-bugs, and the equivalent place on the Manchester archive (see question 1.2 above for details). --- 5.0) ["Vendor"-specific issues] --- 5.1) How compatible is GNU Smalltalk with Smalltalk-80 (or SmalltalkV)? From: sbb@laplace.eng.sun.com (Steve Byrne) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: GNU Smalltalk Compatibility Date: 12 Dec 92 00:52:04 Organization: FSF hackers, Smalltalk division In article <1992Dec2.182201.11980@ntmtv> irvine@ntmtv.UUCP (Chuck Irvine) writes: How compatible is GNU Smalltalk with Smalltalk-80 (or SmalltalkV)? Just curious. Thanks This is probably in the FAQ list [it is now... --crl], but here goes anyway. GNU Smalltalk tries to be syntax compatible with the language described in the blue/purple book (ST-80: the Language*). I think the only discrepancy is that GNU Smalltalk doesn't allow block local temporary variables. Steve [Note, however, that the class library for GNU Smalltalk is very much in its infancy. Most importantly, it has little in the way of graphical user-interface classes. --crl] --- End of Smalltalk FAQ -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Craig R. Latta Experimental Computing Facility (XCF) Composer, Software and Recording Engineer NetJam, Berkeley (netjam-request@xcf) latta@xcf.Berkeley.EDU Smallmusic OO music project (smallmusic-request@xcf) (standard disclaimer) proof NL parsing project (proof-request@xcf) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------