Smalltalk MT is an implementation of the
Smalltalk programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
created in 1994 by Tarik Kerroum to deal with some of the shortcomings of Smalltalk-80 style of implementations. Smalltalk MT adopts a different approach in that the Smalltalk source is
compiled
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
to
machine code
In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a ve ...
before being executed.
This allows the developer the freedom of working with compiled code without the need for the traditional compile-link-run cycle. This is like a specialized form of incremental or
dynamic compilation
Dynamic compilation is a process used by some programming language implementations to gain performance during program execution. Although the technique originated in Smalltalk,Peter L. Deutsch and Alan Schiffman. "Efficient Implementation of the ...
.
Smalltalk MT directly interfaces to
DLLs in exactly the same manner as
C which allows DLL calls to be tested directly in a Workspace, which allows a scripting style of approach to accessing any DLL based code.
For example, one could write in a Workspace the following (single line or multiline, breaking on the '.' character) to reverse the string 'abc':
a := 'abc'. WINAPI _strrev: a. a inspect.
For 64-bit Windows,
try:
a:= 'abc'.
WINAPI _wcsrev: a.
a inspect.
The WINAPI call directly calls the DLL function _strrev natively passing parameters from the Smalltalk environment to the C environment and back.
Smalltalk MT has a close integration with COM objects and fully compiled COM components can be created that operate in exactly the same way as C/C++ COM objects.
In 1998 David Anderson teamed up with Tarik Kerroum to advance Smalltalk MT into the high performance and graphics areas.
References
External links
*http://www.objectconnect.com/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070911004843/http://www.genify.com/
Smalltalk programming language family
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