Category:Smalltalk: Difference between revisions

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This is an informal description (1); a formal (and correct) description is found eg. in the ANSI spec.

Note: typical Smalltalk systems do not compile source code from files, but instead have an IDE embedded (i.e. emphasis on "integrated") and provide browsers and other tools to manipulate source code in the running system. Different systems use different schemes for source code management and various source code exchange formats exist: XML based/VisualWorks, zip-archive Monticello, GitHub file based (tonel), etc.). One common interchange format which all systems support is the original bang-separated "chunk format", which consists of Smalltalk expressions (!) separated by "!" characters. These expressions, when read and evaluated, will reconstruct the original classes, methods or arbitrary objects. Therefore, you will not find any syntax for class declarations in the BNF below: classes are constructed by evaluating expressions like "Object subclass:'NameOfNewClass'" etc.

Note: typical Smalltalk systems do not compile source code from files, but instead have an IDE embedded (i.e. emphasis on "integrated") and provide browsers and other tools to manipulate source code in the running system.

Different dialects use different schemes for source code management and various source code exchange formats exist: XML based/VisualWorks, zip-archive Monticello, GitHub file based (tonel), etc.).

One common interchange format which all systems support is the original bang-separated "chunk format", which consists of Smalltalk expressions (!) separated by "!" characters. These expressions, when read and evaluated, will reconstruct the original classes, methods or arbitrary objects. Therefore, you will not find any syntax for class declarations in the BNF below: classes are constructed by evaluating expressions like "Object subclass:'NameOfNewClass'" etc.

====Lexical Tokens (should/cannot be used as message names) (2)====