jeh@ritcv.UUCP (James E Heliotis) (02/10/84)
You know, I was thinking. If you want to try to implement a Smalltalk
system on your mini or mainframe computer, but you don't have good
graphics terminals, you're in big trouble. Either you fake it on non-
graphically oriented terminals, and the system crawls along (which I
suspect it might do anyway), or you spend a big effort ripping out all
the window stuff, graphics, and mouse junk out of the Smalltalk environment
you bought from Xerox, and add in your own character output routines
(I think Smalltalk paints characters), and end up with something not
nearly as useful.
So then, I thought, might a MacIntosh (or perhaps a Lisa) have its
terminal emulation software set up so that the full desktop environment
is controllable from the outside? I suspect that even if the answer is
'yes', there will be problems, for example:
>From what I have seen, I suspect the MAC implements menus and their
interaction with the mouse in ROM. However, I suspect that there is
a Smalltalk class 'menu' which is somehow implemented (as a subclass?)
in terms of the class 'window', and that the mouse is somehow automatically
monitored by those objects as well.
So, I am sure that the match would not be perfect. But can anyone
enlighten me on my original question?
Jim Heliotis
{allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!jeh
rocksvax!ritcv!jeh
ritcv!jeh@Rochesterrentsch@unc.UUCP (Tim Rentsch) (02/13/84)
I suppose everyone knows by now that Apple did a Smalltalk for the Lisa (yes, I have seen Smalltalk actually running on a Lisa). If you're interested, why not give your Apple salesman a call and ask when it will be available and how much it will cost? It can't hurt . . . Tim