ted@usceast.UUCP (Ted Nolan) (05/05/85)
Fairly recently, I posted a request for info on public domain versions
of small talk. Here are the responses I got :
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Hi,
You are bound to be flooded with these references, but I will send
it anyway:
Berkeley Smalltalk
Contact:
Allene Parker
Computer Science Division
573 Evans Hall
University of California
Berkeley, Ca. 94720
(parker%ucbernie@Berkeley.ARPA)
(...!ucbvax!ucbernie!parker)
Runs on a Sun, written in C for 4.2BSD. BIG program. I have not
used it myself and would be interested in your experiences. For
full scoop see Sigplan Notices, Oct. 1984, pp7-9 which is where I
lifted this info.
Good Luck.
Ferrell Mercer (804)978-6245
GE
P.O. Box 8106, PR-1
Charlottesville, Va. 22906
P.S. I am required by my employer to state: this info is from me
and does not represent an endorsement by GE, blah blah blah...
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this has appeared several times in net.lang.st80, but not for a month or
so. Sources are public domain, but we like to keep a mailing list for
announcements of bug fixes, updates, etc.
An interpreter for a Smalltalk-like language is now
available from the University of Arizona. The system, known
as ``Little Smalltalk'', is written entirely in C, and does
not require any special hardware beyond conventional ascii
terminals. Unlike Smalltalk-80, Little Smalltalk is not a
complete programming environment, but sits on top of Unix
and uses the Unix file system and Unix editors. It is
intended to provide an introduction to some of the concepts
of Smalltalk (such as object oriented programming and inher-
itance) for individuals (particularly students) who do not
have access to the more modern hardware required for
Smalltalk-80.
The language recognized by the Little Smalltalk system
is similar, although not identical, to the Smalltalk-80
language described in the book by Goldberg and Robson. The
elimination of the bit-mapped display and the mouse permit-
ted the removal of much of the graphics kernel. Other
changes were made in the interest of reducing size or sim-
plifying the implementation. Among the most notable differ-
ences are:
* No mice - no browser, none of the nice environment
described in the orange book
* Fewer classes, many of the classes in the blue book
have been eliminated for space or implementation rea-
sons.
* No class methods - all classes respond to the same set
of messages
* Instance variables have scope restricted to the class
in which they are defined.
* No indexed instance variables.
* No pool variables (instead, there is a single global
dictionary the user can access).
* Cascades have been redefined to make them easier to
understand and more like expressions.
* Internal representation is totally different from that
of the blue book.
All these differences, and much more, are explained in
detail in the documentation distributed along with the dis-
tribution tape.
Currently, the system has been ported to the following
systems:
* VAX 780 / Berkeley 4.2
* PDP 11/70 and 11/44 (using separate I/D)
* Ridge / ROS 3.0
* DecPro 350 (using code mapping feature)
As evidenced by the implementations on the 11/70 and
the DecPro, size requirements for the system are not large,
although it would probably not fit on a pure 64K address
space.
The system is totally independent of the Xerox virtual
image, and in fact has been produced using only the descrip-
tion provided by the blue book.
The little Smalltalk system can be obtained by sending
a check for $15 (US) payable to ``The University of
Arizona'', to the following address:
Timothy A. Budd
Smalltalk Distribution
Department of Computer Science
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
85721
Please specify along with your request your name,
address, electronic mail address, the type of computer you
will be using and its operating system. Source is distri-
buted in 9-track tar format, preferably 1600 bpi.
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Hi Ted,
Your question re: the Smalltalk-80 system was forwarded to me. The
system is configured as a Virtual Image running on top of a Virtual
Machine. The specification for the Virtual Machine has been published
in Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation. You or anyone
else may implement it on hardware of your choice. The Virtual Image may
be licensed from Xerox for $400 non-commercial or $20,000 commercial.
Feel free to direct any further questions my way.
Duane Bay <Bay.pa@XEROX.ARPA>
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My thanks to everyone who sent me information; I don't know what the department
will do, but it was very helpful.
Ted Nolan ..usceast!ted
--
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Ted Nolan ...decvax!mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!usceast!ted (UUCP)
6536 Brookside Circle ...akgua!usceast!ted
Columbia, SC 29206 allegra!usceast!ted@seismo (ARPA, maybe)
("Deep space is my dwelling place, the stars my destination")
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