VAST Platform (VA Smalltalk) differs from other dialects of Smalltalk in that it provides you the tools to create applications by constructing them from parts rather than writing Smalltalk code. Either way, because VAST Platform is a pure object-oriented development environment, you can easily reuse or extend your applications.

Visual programming in VAST Platform makes you more productive by providing you with a set of parts that represent the client/server application development spectrum and a set of interactive visual programming tools. You create your applications by assembling and connecting parts. In some cases, you do not even have to write any code.

You can immediately begin developing advanced object-oriented applications using the visual programming paradigm and learn object-oriented technology at your own pace. You can develop applications by visually arranging and connecting prefabricated parts. You can also take advantage of the flexibility of VAST Platform by creating your own reusable parts. When the situations warrants, you can use scripts to access the power of Smalltalk without totally leaving the visual programming paradigm.