Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!emory!att!iuvax!rutgers!caip.rutgers.edu!peskin From: peskin@caip.rutgers.edu (R. L. Peskin) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Class Pen in PPS Rel. 4 Message-ID: Date: 26 Oct 90 21:52:00 GMT Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 30 We are currently evaluating the new ParcPlace Systems Rel. 4 of Smalltalk. We are porting our scientific graphics package (SCENE) to this version. (Previous versions of SCENE for PPS Smalltalk were monochrome only; the color version was done in Tektronix Smalltalk. There is also a Smalltalk/V Mac version in progress.) While there are many features we like in Rel. 4 (color, native windows, etc.), there is no class Pen! ParcPlace tells us that they consider the Pen obsolete since their data indicated that it was not really used. I personally disagree. Pen was not just a toy to scribble with; it is a serious tool for experimental geometry, etc. when used in TurtleGraphics. I'm interested in others reaction to the loss of class Pen in Rel. 4. One point to be made is that the better books (Inside Smalltalk for example) discuss the Pen, and potential new Smalltalk users may be discouraged if it not really in the system. By the way our SCENE system needs Pen and we are implementing it, and we will make it available on the net. --dick peskin %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Richard L. Peskin CAIP Parallel Computing Lab CAIP Center CN - 1390 Rutgers University Piscataway, N. J. 08855-1390 net: peskin@caip.rutgers.edu %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%