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From: mario@r3.cs.man.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Smalltalk(s) for the PC--a quick review
Message-ID: <6402@ux.cs.man.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Jun 89 17:42:43 GMT
Sender: news@ux.cs.man.ac.uk
Organization: University of Manchester, UK
Lines: 33

In <7030002@hpcupt1.HP.COM> Doug Claar writes:
>Smalltalk/V, is (as far as I know) the only reasonably priced Smalltalk
>for the PC.
>...
> ...Smalltalk/80, which may or may not run on the PC, but is 
> certainly not "reasonably cheap." (It is the 'real' smalltalk). 

Maybe true a while ago, but not any more...  If you have a 386 PC, you
can run Smalltalk-80 VI2.4 on it.  I have used this on a Compaq
Deskpro 386/20, and it's *wonderful*.

Price: approx $150.  Speed: 170 on the usual scale (where Dorado=100).
This means it's faster than Smalltalk-80 on a Sun 3/60.
Reliability: excellent.  It has a generation-based garbage collector
which is imperceptible, and reclaims cycles.  

Most importantly, it's The Real Thing.  Browsers with categories and
message protocols, correction, mutation of instance variables when you
modify a class definition, multi-processing, and, much, much more..

The only drawback of this as against a Sun is that the screen is
small...and I even have that sorted (with a goodie that lets the real
screen pan over a large "virtual" screen.)  More information can be
obtained from info@parcplace.com.

"(FileStream fileNamed: 'StandardDisclaimer.st') fileIn."

Mario Wolczko
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