Welcome to the Apple IIGS version of Little Smalltalk. It is a tty-oriented
subset of Smalltalk designed to be highly portable across various platforms.

I built the IIGS version using ORCA/C v1.3 in GNO 1.0, running under System 6.0
on a 6MB ROM 01 IIGS with a 10 MHZ TWGS. Little Smalltalk is a bit sluggish on
my system, so the faster the accelerator that you have, the better! Somewhat
like HyperCard IIGS.

I tested it briefly running under the ORCA 2.0 shell, and it seemed to work
fine. I didn't try re-building the C code under the ORCA shell however it should
work fine as long as you have all the necessary libraries. If you will be
running it under the ORCA shell, you'll have to change a couple of the methods
in the tty classes. Basically all you have to do is ensure that the file delete
method uses 'delete' instead of 'rm', and that the editMethod method uses the
same edit command as you are. For full details look at the INSTALL.TXT file in
the DOCS folder. There's a full explanation under the heading MS-DOS. (IBM'ers
have to make similar changes)

Speaking of documentation, there isn't a lot. Read through the file MANUAL.TXT
in the DOCS folder. And then you can look at all the '.ST' files to get an
understanding of the class definitions. I highly recommend that you get ahold of
the book A Little Smalltalk by Timothy Budd, published by Addison Wesley in
1987, ISBN 0-201-10698-1. It is an excellent primer for learning about
object-oriented languages and it describes Little Smalltalk version 1 in great
detail. Unfortunately, this is version 3 and there are a few differences between
the two versions. Adapting the Ice Cream Store examples from the book, required
me to change the syntax a bit and use some slightly different methods than what
was documented in the book. An excellent way to learn however!

The first thing to try is run the shell command file "dotest". This runs "st"
and executes the "test.st" and "queen.st" Smalltalk files. All tests should pass
if you are using the original "systemimage" file that I created.

Then you can try out the shell commands "doice1", "doice2" and "doice3". They
run the Ice Cream Store simulation in an increasing complexity.

I had to add in an "exit" method for the "Smalltalk" class. The docs say that
typing a Control-D will exit "st", however I couldn't get it to work and I
couldn't figure out why it didn't work. To exit "st" from an interactive session
just send the message "exit" to the object "smalltalk".

      >   smalltalk exit

Note that case is very important! "Smalltalk" is a class. "smalltalk" is an
instance of the "Smalltalk" class (i.e. an object), that is set up in the
initial "systemimage" file.

All Apple IIGS specific methods are defined in the "appleiigs.st" file. If you
find that some new Apple IIGS functionality is required, try and code it in
Smalltalk first and add it to the "appleiigs.st" file. The C code should only be
modified as a last resort. Most of Little Smalltalk is written in itself, which
makes it very portable, and object-oriented, if you start to think about it.

If you do modify the C code, use the shell command "initsysimage" to rebuild the
"systemimage" file.

I noticed one bug while using the addMethod and editMethod methods with the ORCA
text editor running under GNO. (They allow you to edit methods interactively by
starting up the editor and then returning to "st"). When you're done editing a
method and return to "st", the cursor has disappeared. I don't know if this is a
problem with GNO, "st" or the ORCA editor. But everything else continues to work
OK.

When I get the time, I'll try and write up some documentation on writing your
own classes and the syntax needed. But don't hold your breath - get a copy of
the book instead.

I also have acquired the stdwin windowing package mentioned in the docs and used
for the X-Windows and Macintosh ports. One day I'll start looking at it to try
and give the GS version a graphical interface as well.

When I get ORCA/C v2.0, I'll try re-building the C code to see if it makes it
any faster. ORCA/C v1.3 didn't like some of the macros, so I used functions
instead. Also, not all of the optimization flags could be set for all of the C
source files.

Anyhow, have fun exploring Little Smalltalk. And if you create any useful class
definitions, upload them!

Allan Belyea

GEnie:    A.BELYEA
CIS:      73737,1642
Internet: alb@cognos.COM