[comp.lang.smalltalk] Sharing code

abbott@aerospace.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott) (06/28/89)

Since Smalltalk is such a good language for code reuse, I have been
wondering whether there libraries of useful classes that the Smalltalk
community shares with each other?  We are just getting started on a
project in which we will use smalltalk and would prefer not to have to
build everything from scratch.

To give you an example of what I have in mind, our project plans to use
Smalltalk to build a user-friendly front-end to environments, e.g., a
replacement for the C-shell (i.e., a new to Unix front end).  One of our
plans is to have a window in which the file system structure is
displayed as a tree (really a directed graph) of directories.  Clicking
on a node will cause a subwindow to pop up in which the files at that
node are displayed.  It would be nice if instead of building the MVC for
the tree browser ourselves we could make use of one already built.

Any suggestions?  (Note this is *not* same as the Smalltalk browser.  We
want to build an actual visual image with edges and labelled nodes.)

-- Russ Abbott (abbott@itro3.aero.org)

dean@image.soe.clarkson.edu (Dean Swan) (06/29/89)

From article <53612@aerospace.AERO.ORG>, by abbott@aerospace.aero.org (Russell J. Abbott):
 > plans is to have a window in which the file system structure is
 > displayed as a tree (really a directed graph) of directories.  Clicking
 > on a node will cause a subwindow to pop up in which the files at that
 > node are displayed.  It would be nice if instead of building the MVC for
 > the tree browser ourselves we could make use of one already built.
 > 
 > -- Russ Abbott (abbott@itro3.aero.org)

Smalltalk/V comes with code to do exactly what you want.  It wouldn't take much
work to translate it from St/V's Model-Pane-Dispatcher scheme to St-80's
Model-View-Controller scheme.  Panes are essentially equivalent to Views, and
Dispatchers correspond to Controllers.  I don't know about the legalities of
using or modifying Digitalk's code though.  You should check with them about
it.

-Dean Swan
dean@sun.soe.clarkson.edu

fchan@watvlsi.waterloo.edu (Francis Chan) (06/29/89)

In article <1989Jun29.050323.28432@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> Dean Swan writes:

>> <stuff deleted> ... file system structure is displayed as a tree
>> (really a directed graph) of directories. <stuff deleted> ...
>> -- Russ Abbott (abbott@itro3.aero.org)

>.. translate it from St/V's Model-Pane-Dispatcher scheme to St-80's
>Model-View-Controller scheme. 
>-Dean Swan

You might also want to check up on ParcPlace's new interface. I believe
they are using it on the MAC versions of ST80. It's called Navigator or
something like that ... I've seen it running on a SPARCstation. Very slick.
I'm not sure why they haven't ported it for the other platforms yet.
It allows 2-d scrolling (like that in ST/V), dynamically resizeable
subviews (maybe its called something else...) and directories looking
exactly like the way Russ described them ... what more could you want??
(except colour, natch'). 

Francis Chan
University of Waterloo
"Able was I ere I saw Elba" - N. Bonaparte