Visual Smalltalk Enterprise

FAQs - Abbandon Smalltalk Environments

Visual Smalltalk Enterprise provides a component-based, object-oriented environment for application development that enables point-and-click, graphical assembly of reusable components. Through visual programming (the ability to specify the look and action of an application) VSE allows developers to create mission-critical client and server applications that provide flexible and easily updated solutions for the enterprise. VSE provides features that allow developers to build client/server applications that are easily maintained and modified. These include:

• Windows 9X functionality
• A timesaving component architecture
• A maintainable and extensible application structure
• Team development support
• Distributed application support

Designed for Windows 9X

Visual Smalltalk Enterprise is one of the first client/server tools designed for the Windows 9X environment. Its 32-bit compiled performance and visual programming power lets developers create high-performance, scalable applications with ease. VSE supports OLE2 services that enable OLE container applications and provide OLE functionality such as drag-and-drop, compound storage and OLE Controls. In addition, OS/2 ® developers can build applications that are portable between Windows and OS/2 and can incorporate the SOM/DSOM capability for distributed objects.
Visual Smalltalk Enterprise supports new Windows 9X common controls including:

• Rich Text Editor -- enables unlimited text length and supports .rtf files and multiple fonts and colors.
• Tree View -- displays lists of items that have a hierarchical arrangement, such as directories or compound documents.
• Toolbar -- builds toolbars that can be either attached to a window or stand-alone.
• Status Window -- shows various states and help text.
• List View -- allows developers to maintain and sort multicolumn lists as well as represent information as icons or detailed text.
• Slider -- allows developers to choose a discrete value from a range of values.
• Progress Indicator -- indicates the progress of a task.
• Tool Tips -- enables tips (pop-up fields that display a text hint) to be attached to each control.
• Tab Sheet -- allows developers to build multipage dialogs.

Timesaving Component Architecture

Visual Smalltalk Enterprise allows developers to create and distribute components easily. Developers can control the footprint of their applications by dynamically loading and unloading components as needed, allowing developers to deploy complex applications with much less memory. Developers can use Smalltalk to build business objects and combine these with prebuilt interface components and OLE controls. Since completed applications are distributed as binary portable components, developers can distribute the processing between clients and servers -- offloading processing from the client and enabling the use of batch operations.

Maintainable and Extensible Application Structure

Many 4GL tools let developers build their applications quickly but lack the tools for easy maintenance. With VSE, developers cannot only build their applications fast, but they can also maintain them easily with a powerful tool set. Developers can use code browsing tools to understand the structure of their applications and to build textual descriptions. They can also organize and document their work using scenario descriptions, a high-level method for grouping and documenting events and messages.

Team Development Support With Visual Smalltalk Enterprise

Visual Smalltalk Enterprise extends VisualSmalltalk's functionality by supporting large development teams with version control and configuration management, for reliable and repeatable builds. In addition, VSE's full-featured browsers enable developers to better document, structure and maintain code and to automate routine tasks. Access control allows developers to specify revision locking policies to create, read and delete file revisions using a graphical interface.

Distributed Application Support

Visual Smalltalk Enterprise allows developers to complete high-performance applications that distribute Smalltalk logic across clients and servers. Using TCP/IP, VSE's communications between client and server systems enable high-performance client/server applications and connectivity to VisualWorks ® server applications. VSE also supports asynchronous API calls which enable developers to continue Smalltalk processing while completing nonSmalltalk functions, such as database queries.

Technical Specifications

Windows ® 95 Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium Operating System: Windows 95

Windows 98

• Hardware: Pentium
• Operating System: Windows 98 (VSE 3.1.3 or later)

Windows 3.1

• Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium
• Operating System: MS-DOS 5.0, 6.X Win 32s 1.30

Windows NT ®

• Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium
• Operating System: Windows NT 3.5.1, NT 4.0 (VSE 3.1.2a or later), NT 5.0 (VSE 3.1.3 or later)

Windows for Workgroups 3.11

• Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium
• Operating System: MS-DOS 5.0, 6.X Win 32s 1.30

OS/2 ®

• Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium
• Operating System: OS/2 3.0 Warp, OS/2 4.0 Warp (VSE 3.1.2a or later)

OS/2 Warp Connect

• Hardware: Intel 486, Pentium
• Operating System: OS/2 3.0 Warp, OS/2 4.0 Warp (VSE 3.1.2a or later)

VisualSmalltalk requires 12 MB minimum memory and 35 MB free disk space.
Visual Smalltalk Enterprise requires 16 MB minimum memory and 72 MB free disk space.

Complementary Products

PARTS Wrapper ® for CICS ®/COBOL/EHLLAPI/Relational Databases

Based on the proven Parts Assembly and Reuse Tool Set (PARTS) technology, PARTS Wrapper products from ObjectShare enable developers to reuse and integrate software components from different technologies. With point-and-click ease, developers can integrate legacy systems with their VisualSmalltalk applications or create new distributed systems by connecting Smalltalk objects with CICS transactions, SQL data and existing COBOL and EHLLAPI programs. PARTS Wrapper products enable developers to preserve their legacy data and resources efficiently and effortlessly.

Simplified Wrapping Process

The "wrapping" process for PARTS Wrapper products is simple: developers drop the component on the workbench; set its properties; generate a form, table, or report; and run the application. These wrapped components can be saved and distributed in workbench catalogs, allowing developers to reuse components with drag-and-drop ease. Additionally, Smalltalk developers can use wrapper frameworks to create new classes or to add more business logic to their existing applications.
Each wrapper contains its own catalog, making it easy to organize, use and reuse components.

PARTS Wrapper for CICS

PARTS Wrapper for CICS leverages developers' investments in CICS, providing connectivity between VSE applications and CICS programs running on workstations, LANs and midrange and mainframe systems.

PARTS Wrapper for CICS lets developers:

• Call legacy applications on local or remote systems, including Windows ®, OS/2 ®, MVS ®, VM, VSE, AIX ®, AS/400 ®, and HP-UX ®
• Manage data conversions between CICS and VisualSmalltalk formats
• Exploit host and client multitasking support for parallel activities
• Coordinate commit or roll-back operations across several CICS programs, maintaining data integrity among transactions
• Organize transactions to provide a logical view of the application flow.

PARTS Wrapper for COBOL

PARTS Wrapper for COBOL leverages developers' investments in COBOL. It turns legacy COBOL into reusable parts that can be assembled into applications that combine many different technologies. COBOL programmers can create new COBOL parts or modify existing ones and reuse parts without any COBOL knowledge. Fields can be created for any data item, and numeric COBOL data items can be validated for input using sign, length and scale.
PARTS Wrapper for COBOL lets developers:

• Access COBOL programs directly
• Generate Smalltalk messages for each COBOL subprogram automatically
• Map COBOL data items to Smalltalk events and messages
• Connect Smalltalk applications to IMS „¢ and DB2 ® databases efficiently
• Access 16-bit and 32-bit COBOL DLLs.

PARTS Wrapper for EHLLAPI

PARTS Wrapper for EHLLAPI is designed for corporate users who need GUI front ends to their legacy 3270/5250 mainframe systems. It allows developers to convert 3270/5250 text screens to graphical screens providing developers with a clean, intuitive interface without the need to change the host application. PARTS Wrapper for EHLLAPI supports IBM ® Communications Manager and other EHLLAPI products compatible with Communications Manager on OS/2.
PARTS Wrapper for EHLLAPI lets developers:

• Capture screen information such as text fields, static lists and screen ID fields
• "Read" data from, and "write" data to multiple 3270 sessions
• View the fields and attributes of all captured screens
• Run an application without an online connection for offline testing
• Build in custom error handling for program, machine and communications checks
• Access 3270 and 5250 status lines for direct processing.

PARTS Wrapper for Relational Databases

PARTS Wrapper for Relational Databases allows developers to create graphical client/server applications that leverage the power of SQL databases. Developers can interconnect visual and nonvisual parts when developing applications. Graphical client/server applications can be built using a complete set of Common User Access (CUA) tools that leverage SQL database power. ANSI-standard SQL and SQL extensions are supported for each database.
PARTS Wrapper for Relational Databases lets developers:

• Create and save custom SQL statements with parameters
• Format query results as forms or tables
• Create graphical front-end applications that work independently of the accessed database, enabling client/server applications to port across different databases
• Create intelligent database accessor parts using SQL
• Integrate new technologies with an open, extensible tool set.

Supported Databases

Note: The 16-bit versions of the following databases are supported for OS/2:
Btrieve, XDB 2.41, Novell Netware, MDI DB2 Gateway, and IBM DB2/2,
IBM Extended Services Database Manager.

Supported Platforms

Technical Specifications

PARTS Wrapper for CICS requires

• VisualSmalltalk or Visual Smalltalk Enterprise 3.1.1 or later
• 1.5 MB minimum free disk space (for installation)
• One of the following:
  • IBM CICS Client for Windows 1.0 (16-bit or 32-bit)
  • IBM CICS Client for OS/2 1.0 with CSD1
  • IBM CICS OS/2 Server 2.0.1 or 3.0

PARTS Wrapper for COBOL requires

• VisualSmalltalk or Visual Smalltalk Enterprise 3.1.1 or later
• 1.5 MB minimum free disk space (for installation)
• Micro Focus COBOL version 3.2 or later (to compile and link only)

PARTS Wrapper for EHLLAPI requires

• VisualSmalltalk or Visual Smalltalk Enterprise 3.1 or later for OS/2
• 1.5 MB minimum free disk space (for installation)
• IBM Communications Manager/2 or 100% equivalent

PARTS Wrapper for Relational Databases requires

• VisualSmalltalk or Visual Smalltalk Enterprise 3.1 or later
• 1.5 MB minimum free disk space (for installation)