VistaSmalltalk

VistaSmalltalk, or Vistascript, is a Microsoft Vista scripting Internet Explorer web development environment based on Smalltalk for the Microsoft .NET framework using XAML. While the name implies it is only an implementation of Smalltalk, Vista Smalltalk also includes a Lisp language engine which can use the Smalltalk libraries.

Vista Smalltalk can be opened in IE7 either by clicking on the link at the Vistascript.net home page (this does not work.) or by downloading the code and executing vst.exe within its directory or with its directory set in the PATH for Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Newer versions of Vista Smalltalk can also be run on top of the Adobe Flash. This by technical novelty- Vista Smalltalk is using the Flash runtime instead of a traditional Smalltalk virtual machine, something which hasn't been done before. This use of Flash for Vista Smalltalk's runtime means that Vista Smalltalk (contrary to the name) can now be run on Mac OS X and Linux, where the original Vista Smalltalk was constrained to Windows due to its use of .NET.

Once the browser pane is visible, a right-click on the background makes available a typical Smalltalk workspace, transcript or class browser.

This is comparable to opening a browser on running code in the Seaside web framework. Similar early efforts were Smallscript and SharpSmalltalk. A future release of the Gemstone framework with continuations may offer similar facilities for runtime code edits in a web browser.

As of May 2008 it appears to be no longer available. You can download Vista Smalltalk from here

External links

• XAML overview by Microsoft.
• Scripting Microsoft Vista.
• SharpSmalltalk known as #Smalltalk. (Dead link)
• Smallscript site. (Dead link)
• Cincom Smalltalk and .NET. (Bad link)
• CalmoSoft Project for Vista Smalltalk

References

• Gemstone plans for continuations.