Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!csustan!csun!csusac!unify!dgh
From: dgh@unify.UUCP (David Harrington)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Diff between st/V and st/V 286
Keywords: smalltalk digitalk 286
Message-ID: <886@unify.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 89 18:18:18 GMT
References: <596@swbatl.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgh@unify.UUCP (David Harrington)
Organization: Unify Corporation, Sacramento, CA, USA
Lines: 39

In article <596@swbatl.UUCP> uucigj@swbatl.UUCP (3531) writes:
>I have heard that the two versions of smalltalk from digitalk (V and V/286)
>are essentially the same.  
>...  Are there any functional differences.  For example the V/286
>needs one meg of memory where V needs only 640k, what is the major reason
>here.  

V/286 does not do object swapping at all; V does, hence it can run in 640K.
V/286 needs expanded (or extended) memory so it can fit in the entire image.
I would recommend loading up the 386 with as much memory as you can afford.

>I have a 386 machine with 1 meg of memory (but I can only use 640 k
>the other is wasted), and would like to use the smalltalk from digitalk but
>I do not want to buy the extra memory (right now the funds would only allow
>one of the purchases not V/286 and the memory both). 

See above.  The V/286 image grows past 1 meg pretty quickly.

>Will there be
>anything I will not be able to do with the V and the goodies package to
>enhance to VGA that I can do with the V/286? 

Sorry, don't know on this one.

>Also, another thought is that
>if I run Unix on the 386 box latter and have a dos session running I
>theoretically can use the stV rather than the V/286, right?  Any help would
>be appreciated.

Yes, but why?  You'll have the same problems.  I would recommend, since you
have a 386, that you look at ParcPlace's 386 Smalltalk.  It is *far* superior
to the Digitalk product (either one), but it does cost more ($995 retail).  In
general, I found that V/286 is unreliable running on a 386 unless it is a
Model 80, which is what Digitalk uses for development.  I had all kinds of
problems with protection exceptions, GC crashes, and trashed images for no
reason using V/286 on a Micronics 386 w/ 4 megs of memory.  Digitalk was no
help.

Good luck.