Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!veritas!amdcad!sun!exodus!sbb From: sbb@laplace.eng.sun.com (Steve Byrne) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: gnu smalltalk availability Message-ID: Date: 4 May 91 21:21:37 GMT References: <91119.171423U09541@uicvm.uic.edu> Sender: news@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM Organization: FSF hackers, Smalltalk division Lines: 27 In-reply-to: U09541@uicvm.uic.edu's message of 29 Apr 91 22:14:23 GMT In article <91119.171423U09541@uicvm.uic.edu> U09541@uicvm.uic.edu writes: Can someone summarize about where to get free gnu smalltalk? the major difference between gnu smalltalk and smalltalk V, and the availability of gnu smalltalk benchmarks. Thanks for the info. GNU Smalltalk can be retrieved by anonymous FTP from a number of sites around the country. prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/smalltalk-1.1.tar.Z is one place; labrea.stanford.edu is another. GNU Smalltalk doesn't have the GUI orientation that ST/V has; version 1.1 has a simple X windows interface. It does have a reasonable amount of integration with Emacs, so you can do many of the things that you can do with a GUI based Smalltalk. I don't know about performance comparisons. Version 1.2 (no, I don't know when it will be out...work keeps interfering with my free time) has significantly improved performance, and reduced memory requirements. It also has a more reasonable X interface, but it's still at the Xlib (really X protocol) level. It will have call-ins from C (1.1. has callouts), and support for creating and modifying C structs from within Smalltalk. It will have more support for system-level things like handling UNIX interrupts. It has conditional compilation support, and a Lisp-like *features* mechanism. VMS will be supported as well as the RS/6000. Much more of the I/O system has been brought into line with the blue book standard. Plus (of course) bug fixes. Steve