I'm a bit confused about how ObjectStudio relates to VW.  I know that ObjectStudio has Microsoft-centric features as compared to VW, but I remember reading something about ObjectStudio moving to the VW virtual machine.   I'm assuming the IDEs are completely separate?

Comment by James Robertson

ObjectStudio is a completely separate Smalltalk, and - until the OS 8 project - had its own VM. We are now hosting ObjectStudio within VW, but the IDE consists of a mostly separate set of tools (completely separate in OST 7). In ObjectStudio 8, the VW debugger and browser are used, and developers can take advantage of other VW specific features - while VW developers can use OST to get OST specific features - such as better Windows integration (Native GUI, ActiveX embedding, etc)

In ObjectStudio 8, the VW debugger and browser are used, and developers can take advantage of other VW specific features - while VW developers can use OST to get OST specific features - such as better Windows integration (Native GUI, ActiveX embedding, etc)

So if I'm developing on Windows and doing a Seaside apps, is there any reason I should choose VW over ObjectStudio.  Ideally for me, I would like everything that VW offers in a Windows-centric development environment.  Or in other words, ObjectStudio as a superset of VW.

Any idea when VW 7.5 and ObjectStudio 8 will be available for download?

I have a potential client that was a Smalltalker 20 years ago, but has been out of development for quite a while now.  He's interested in Seaside, but is also interested in some crossplatform thick client apps.  His two main concerns on the thick client side are deployment and native fidelity.

On the native fidelity side, ideally he would like something that is similiar to SWT.  I understand that VW still uses a light-weight toolkit that isn't quite native.  I've heard of Pollack and something beyond Pollack.  How does Pollack differ from the current toolkit, what is after Pollack and how does it differ from Pollack?

 On the deployment side of things, how good is the image stripping in VW?  

Comment by James Robertson

OST is oriented at building Windows client apps, database centric ones in particular. If your target was web using Seaside, then the features of ObjectStudio 8 wouldn't help much, unless you also planned to add some native Windows console for management purposes.

As to x-plat UI: The packager does a decent job, and we provide a compression tool. For Swallow (the Twitter client we built), we ended up with a 5.7 MB executable (compressed). Mind you, that could be smaller if we weren't using both Widgetry (Pollock) and the older UI (the settings tool has not moved to Widgetry yet).

After Widgetry and OS8 are delivered, the team is going to look at native UI, focusing on Windows, Mac, and Linux (in that order)

Hi James,

I'm very interested in trying the latest version of VM on my new MacBook.  However, upon clicking the link to log in to download the 'goods' I was presented with the Registration page; I confirmed this by clicking on the Register... link.  The URLs look different, the same page appears to be served though.

Cheers,

Mel Riffe 

Comment by James Robertson

Register again, and then you can download.

Does this release of CST contain a vm which will work by default on the Intel Mac? I'm downloading the ISO now and will be very happy if I know I can just install this on my intel mac and it will just work. Thanks.

Comment by James Robertson

Yes on OS X intel