VA Smalltalk Base overview

VA Smalltalk Base is a development environment designed to support the easy creation of software applications on multiple platforms. VA Smalltalk Base provides a platform-independent application program interface (API) based on industry standards.

Comprising nine subsystems, VA Smalltalk Base encompasses the functionality required by most Smalltalk applications. Applications programmed entirely in accordance with the VA Smalltalk Base interface specification run without modification on all supported platforms, yet adopt the native look and feel of the particular platform. This enables applications to be produced from a single code base across multiple platforms, while still providing a high degree of platform integration.

VA Smalltalk Base directly utilizes the native functionality provided by each platform. VA Smalltalk Base emulates API functionality not directly supported by a particular platform in order to support a complete and consistent interface across all supported platforms. As part of the implementation of VA Smalltalk Base, access to platform-specific functionality is also provided.

Throughout the remainder of this book, VA Smalltalk Base is referred to as VA Smalltalk for simplicity.