haskins@s.cs.uiuc.edu (09/27/89)
I am currently enrolled in a course where I am using Smalltalk-80 from Parc Place on a Tektronix machine. I have seen advertisements for Smalltalk/V286 in magazines, and am currently encumbered by a '286 clone. Can anybody give a quick comparison between the two, especially with respect to libraries, user interface, etc. What I am wondering is if I would be stuck with an incompatible or incomplete implementation should I spring for the Digitalk product. If this tends to be a perennial question asked by novices (I have only recently started reading this notesfile), I'd appreciate directions to the nearest archive. Thanks much. --------------------------------------- Lloyd M. Haskins -- haskins@cs.uiuc.edu
bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) (09/27/89)
In article <208700003@s.cs.uiuc.edu> haskins@s.cs.uiuc.edu asks
about Smalltalk-80 vs. Digitalk Smalltalk V/286.
I have used ParcPlace Smalltalk-80 on the Sun and on the Mac.
I have used Digitalk Smalltalk V/286 on DOS machines and
Digitalk Smalltalk V/Mac.
I found I could convert from V/286 to Smalltalk-80 or
to V/Mac with a day or two of editing the file-ins.
The biggest problem was with Forms, Character Scanners,
and Menus. These tend to differ in substantial ways
across dialects and platforms. But the problems are
not insurmountable.
One problem with V/286 is that it does not run on my
AT&T PC 6300 Plus. I like Smalltalk V/Mac on my Mac II.
I think it is the best implementation of the ones I
have used. The only shortcoming which has been a
problem is the limited support for color. V/286
has a nice support for EGA color.
--Barry Kort