CD Actual 11/CDACTUAL11.iso/cdactual/demobin/share/os2/MST/DOC/README.OS2

Text File | 1995-06-29 | 6.0 KB | 136 lines

This is a port of GNU Smalltalk (mst) 1.1.1 for OS/2.



GNU Smalltalk was written by Steve Byrne ([e-mail]). All credits
for it should go to him.



For general information about GNU Smalltalk see the readme file.
For information about the license granted to operate this program, see
the file COPYING.


The source code for GNU Smalltalk can be obtained from the usual GNU mirrors.
The original GNU site is prep.ai.mit.edu ( I think), but however don't use this
unless you really have to, as I think it is pretty much used already. I am
sorry, but I don't know anymore addresses.


If you expect from GNU Smalltalk something like the commercial
visual programming enviromnents, you will be disappointed. As of now, mst
is purely command line oriented. But it is also not a memory hog as some of
these systems are. And it is of course much cheaper.

The port was done using emx 0.9a.

The filenames used are shortend for usage with FAT compared to the original
ones. If you have a HPFS drive and wish to have longer and more descriptive
filenames run hpfsname.cmd in the kernel directory. If you do this,
you HAVE to start mst with the -L switch. I have added this for long filenames.
If you grow tired of using this switch, you can rename the kernel files back
to FAT length by running fatname.cmd, also located in the kernel directory.
If you want to copy the files from a HPFS drive to a FAT drive, or want to
rezip and send them somewhere else, I STRONGLY recommend renaming them back to
FAT names!

You have to unpack mstos2.zip from the root directory of the drive where you
want to have it. mst expects to finds its kernel .st files in /mst/kernel.
If hey aren't there you have to set SMALLTALK_KERNEL to the appropriate path.
Also mst looks for image files in /mst/bin and /mst/image. I actually compiled
it only for /mst/image, but it still creates, and luckily finds them, in
/mst/bin. If you want it to look for the someplace else, you will have to set
SMALLTALK_IMAGE correspondingly.


Installing GNU Smalltallk for OS/2
----------------------------------

Unzip the mstos2.zip file from the root dir of the drive where you want to have
it (see above paragraph). If you want are on a HPFS drive and want to use long
file names change to the /mst/kernel directory and run hpfsnames.cmd. If you do
this, you have to pass the -L parameter when calling mst. If you are on a FAT
drive or don't wnat to use long names, you don't need to do anything.
Now change to the /mst/bin directory and run mst.exe. If you have renamed the
kernel files, you must use the -L parameter, otherwise mst will not be able
to find some of its vitally needed kernel files and will only produce garbage.
mst will now start some more or less heavy acticity on your harddisk. This
is completely normal. It just creates its image from the .st files in /mst/bin.
After a short while something like "GC flipping to space one" and a bit more
will appear on the screen followed by "st>" two lines below it. "st>" is mst's
prompt. You can now start to program in Smalltalk. You can exit mst by typing
Ctrl-Z at a prompt. If you don't know how to program Smalltalk, you should have
a look at the file /mst/doc/tutorial.doc. It is a tutorial for the Smalltalk
language using mst. Note however, that you must use Ctrl-Z and not as stated
in the tutorial Ctrl-D. After having first started mst you will have a file
called mst.im in the /mst/bin directory. This is mst's image file. You can move
it to the /mst/image dir. mst will find it there, but it will also find it in
/mst/bin. If you want to have the image someplace else, set the environment
variable SMALLTALK_IMAGE to the path you want. If you have the kernel files
(*.st) somewhere other than /mst/kernel, you have to set the SMALLTALK_KERNEL
environment variable.

If mst doesn't start for the first time:
----------------------------------------
If mst complains about not being able to find some .st files, one or more of
the following (or even some other) things are responsible:
- You have named the .st files to long (HPFS) filenames and have forgotten to
  start mst with the -L flag.
- You have the .st files with FAT filenames and have started mst with the -L
  flag.
- You don't have the kernel files. Get them!
- You have placed the kernel files somewhere else then /mst/kernel. Either
  put them there, or set the SMALLTALK_KERNEL environment variable to the path
  where you put them.

If you have found another reason, and what to do about it, email me about it,
and I will include it here.


Command line syntax
-------------------
Well, not much here really. mst is a very simple concerning the command line.

    mst [ flag ... ] [ file ...]

Flags can appear either as -xyz or as -x -y -z.  The currently
defined set of flags is:
  -c\tDump core on fatal signal",
  -d\tTrace compilation of user specified files
  -D\tTrace compilation of kernel and user files
  -e\tTrace execution of files specified on command line
  -E\tTrace execution of kernel and user files
  -H -h -?  Print this message and exit
  -i\tIgnore the image file; rebuild it from scratch
  -I file\tUse 'file' as the image file, instead of 'mst.im'
  -p\tRun Smalltalk as a 'process', i.e. from within GNU Emacs
  -q\tRun Smalltalk without printing execution information
  -r\tRun in regression test mode (printed messages are made constant)
  -v\tPrint the Smalltalk version number
  -V\tEnable verbose mode
  -y\tTurn on debugging in the parser
  -L\tUse long HPFS filenames
  - --\tRead input from standard input explicitly

The "-L" flag was added by me for use on OS/2. See above for meaning.


Noticed problems and bugs
-------------------------
When pressing Ctrl-Z on the first empty prompt, mst complains about a
"parse" error, but exits nonetheless. I don't know what causes this.



I hope everything worked as I planned it. I wish you much fun when using
GNU Smalltalk on OS/2.


Timm Morten Steinbeck
[e-mail]

PS: Please don't ask me how to program Smalltalk. I am learning it myself.