Cincom Smalltalk Spring 2008 (Differences between version 3 and 2)

We have just released new versions of the Cincom Smalltalk Product Suite: ObjectStudio 8.1, ObjectStudio 7.1.3, and VisualWorks 7.6. For full details on what's below (and more), please read our Release Notes. You can also download them now!

- All enhancements to VisualWorks are also available to ObjectStudio 8 - they both share the same base libraries, and can both load the same components. + All enhancements to VisualWorks are also available to ObjectStudio 8.1 - they both share the same base libraries, and can both load the same components.

Here are the highlights:

+ ObjectStudio 8.1:

+ +

• Vista Certified - ObjectStudio 8.1 is the first (and only) Smalltalk system certified for Windows Vista.

ObjectStudio 7.1.3:

• A number of bug fixes have been applied. Note that ObjectStudio 7.1.x is not moving forward; all new work for ObjectStudio will be for the 8.x release series

-

VisualWorks 7.6:

+

+ VisualWorks 7.6:

• Support for Seaside 2.8
• Support for Windows Vista
• Much improved Mac OS X VM
• New Process Termination Semantics - a number of new APIs have been added to make terminating a process safer and more reliable.
• Improved Hashing - the performance of many low level operations will be faster
• Updated ToolTip support - the old system has been replaced, but the API is unchanged - your code should not have to change at all
• More GUI Layout options: VisualWorks 7.6 introduces VisualStack, a handy VisualComponent for stacking arbitrary VisualComponents on atop the other, and VisualRow which is a handy way to create a nice horizontal row of VisualComponents. The system itself uses these two "layer" icons as well as show multiple arbitrary icons side by side.
• Announcements - we have started integrating Announcements into the UI - this will continue over future releases
• Reduction of UI "Flicker" - the damage repair policy has been updated, reducing annoying flicker.
• Major updates to the Browser - see the release notes for full details.
• Assets: Assets are libraries of resources for an application, things such as Images, Masked Image, (OpaqueImages), Strings, Bytes, etc. The libraries support a framework for deriving these objects from external files found in a directory associated with the object and keeping them up to date. They also provide caching of computed assets so that access is fast as possible. Again see the release notes for full details
• Enhanced Inspector - informative icons have been added, making it easier to identify what kind of objects you are looking at
• Support for per-process locales (a major aid for web applications)
• Support for the MySQL Database
• Support for Solaris SPARC 64 bit platforms