The Smalltalk cross development environment
The core of the Server Workbench feature is the Smalltalk (VAST) cross-development environment. The cross development environment allows you to design, write, package, and debug a headless application that is to be delivered to a specific platform for processing. This platform can be the same as or different from the platform on which the development image runs.
Cross development consists of using the tools available in the Smalltalk development environment to manipulate Smalltalk code destined to run on a specific target platform.
Version 9.1 caveat:
The UNIX XD image created by the cross development (XD) environment is only runnable on Linux platforms.
The cross development (XD) environment includes the following:
•Any number of
passive images. The passive image is used primarily for packaging your image and contains only the code to be delivered to the target platform. Smalltalk browsers "remember" the passive image to which they are associated, so that views of different images do not interfere with one another. See
Using passive images for more information.
•A
stack dump debugger, which allows Smalltalk errors to be communicated to the developer through a stack dump file. The stack dump file contains information about the state of the image at the time the Smalltalk error occurred. See
Using the stack dump debugger for more information.
•An
interactive debugger, which allows Smalltalk errors to be communicated to the developer interactively, on a pre-designated workstation. A programmer can inspect objects; evaluate code, step through the running Smalltalk application, and change methods, all for immediate processing by the application running on the target platform. See
Using the interactive debugger for more information.
•A
packager. The packager supports the ability to produce a reduced image that can be installed and run on the target platform. See
Packaging a Smalltalk image for more information.
Last modified date: 02/17/2021