
The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article] [next article]Thanks to a new licensing agreement entered into by the Purdue University Computing Center, all ECN Suns will soon have the Smalltalk-80 programming environment available for use on them.
Smalltalk-80 is an object-oriented programming language. Smalltalk programs consist of lists of messages to be passed to data "objects". These objects have associated "methods" (what "C" programmers might call functions) which interpret the message and produce a result. This arrangement provides for great modularity of program code. Methods are defined for whole groups or "classes" of objects such as integers, providing reusable code which is shared by all members of a class.
Smalltalk-80 is also a programming environment. The Smalltalk environment provides editors, browers, debuggers and file management utilities in a bitmapped display. Similar to Suntools or X11, the Smalltalk display provides numerous windows and display functions. The Smalltalk editor is context sensitive, aiding in program development. The Smalltalk debugger provides you with facilities to examine and modify running Smalltalk programs.
What is Smalltalk-80 used for? Smalltalk is often thought of as an excellent prototyping environment, allowing for the rapid creation of user interfaces for testing and experimentation. Smalltalk is also widely used in the area of artificial intelligence.
ECN will be installing Smalltalk over the next few weeks, one server at a time. Watch the _m_o_t_d on your machine for details.
* Discussions of an Engineering wide license for the SunWrite/Paint/Draw product are underway. Before purchasing this product, you may wish to check with your site specialist on the status of the discussions.
Application Commercial Educational Purdue Name Price Price Price _ SunTrac 2495 500 *SunWrite/Paint/Draw 995 250 Artisan Color 3250 995 Grayscale 1795 695 Monochrome 995 395 Equation Editor 400 200 160 FrameMaker 2500 995 450 Publisher 3495 1195 956 SAS System 1005 804