I'm new here also so I'll just answer the easy ones.
Gerry Weaver wrote:
2. There appear to be some tool choices in the Pharo image. I would like to be
able to create a class and it's methods in an editor in one go. I like being
able to see all of the class code at once. Is there a way to do this? I just
want to be able to type it all in and accept (evaluate?) all at once.
I think GNU smalltalk would be your only option - and would not have
everything that you want for a client GUI applicaton.
When I first started using Smalltalk I didn't realise that I was used to
holding in my mind a "visual map" of where things were in the source
files, and for a while I was uncomfortable like I could not "map"
Smalltalk the same way. I have now adapted.
As well as the differences in language and the live image IDE
environment, the development cycle can be quite different. At its
extreme, you write the test code first with then run it and before even
writing the application code [1]. When the expected runtime error
occurs the debugger opens and you add application code from within the
debugger with the full context of variables available at that instant
against which you experiment with code snippets until you get what you want.
[1] http://squeak.preeminent.org/tut2007/html/011.html
3. I've seen some discussion about images and image sizes. What is the current
state of this. Is it possible to strip an image down to just the required
components for an application (ie; no world menu, etc.). I would like to be
able to run an image that would bring my gui application up filling the image
window such that it looks a close as possible to a conventional gui application.
From my perspective, now that ram, disk space and Internet pipes are
comparatively huge (to not very long ago) I think that file size of the
image is not a real concern for an application. The stripping down of
the image is still important for the Pharo "distribution" to reduce
You don't need to strip out the IDE - you just turn it off - see [2].
In fact leaving the disabled IDE in the image might be useful if the
client has a runtime problem with the application. Rather than "I can't
reproduce it" you can potentially get the client to save the application
image and send it to you. When you open the application you will have
the exact state that the user, on which you can open a debugger. In the
"ideal" case, you can fix it in that image and then send the image back
to them and they can continue from where they left off.
[2] http://squeak.preeminent.org/tut2007/html/205.html
