WindowBuilder Translation Toolkit

The WindowBuilder Pro Translation Toolkit allows you to move existing Visual Smalltalk window definitions to VA Smalltalk.

ApplicationCoordinator, ViewManager, WindowDialog, CompositePane and EventManager classes that have been built by WindowBuilder Pro/V may be filed out of Visual Smalltalk or Visual Smalltalk Enterprise (VSE) and filed into the VAST Platform. At that point, the original code may be executed unmodified via the use of a special runtime support application. The code also may be converted into pure VAST code and run without the runtime support application.

This tool is targeted toward developers who are knowledgeable in both Smalltalk dialects and have experience with WindowBuilder Pro on both platforms. The scope of its functionality is primarily limited to presentation layer code (GUI specifications). The tool is very accurate in converting GUI elements from VSE to VAST as long as there are analogous constructs on the VAST side. Widgets that are common to both platforms are converted easily. Widgets that do not exist in VAST are dealt with by selecting the closest approximation. In some cases, this may be less than adequate and additional work on the VAST side will be necessary. In case there were there are no widgets that even approximate the functionality, a dummy placeholder is substituted. Such windows will generally need to be re-developed using native VAST constructs.