[comp.lang.smalltalk] GNU Smalltalk and Sun 386i's

sbb@laplace.sun.com (Steve Byrne) (11/03/90)

[Mr. Aidun: your return addresses don't work, so I'm posting here]

Yes.  It's trivial.  Take one of the standard sun config files (like
m-sun-os4.h), copy it, and remove the BIG_ENDIAN #define.  Hardware
requirements: really, the requirements are mostly having enough virtual memory
(8 Meg for comfortable operation, but you can change a constant in mstoop.c
to make it less).

GNU Smalltalk is currently primarily non-graphics based.  It has a very
primitive interface to the raw X protocol layer.  It does have an Emacs mode
which allows you to do some things (like doIt) that you'd find in a normal
Smalltalk.  More features (browsing) like that are coming in version 1.2, but
will continue to be Emacs based.

GNU Smalltalk is pretty good about interfacing to C code, and will be better in
1.2, allowing call-backs and direct manipulation of C structs from within
Smalltalk.  Unfortunately, I'm not finding that I have a consistent amount of
time to work on the system, so I can't really predict when 1.2 will be out.  A
realistic guess would be by the end of the year; I'd like to have it be sooner,
but given all that I want to do to the system and my limited time I think it
will end up being about then.

Steve

(oh, Sun 386i support will be in 1.2 :-)