Smalltalk for GS (Was: Re: Some thoughts about GS)

[Stefan Urbanek]

Hi.

Gregory Casamento wrote:

>
>
> -- Marco Scheurer <marco@sente.ch> wrote:
>
>
-- snip --

> > Another killer app for GNUstep would of course be the GNUstepWeb / EOF
> > clone combo. I know about the issues with that.
> >
> > About the barrier of Objective C. As much as I like Objective C (and I
> > like it a lot!) I have to agree with those who do not like to be forced to
> > use one language or another. After all, I hate being forced to use Java. It
> > would be nice if GNUstep could attain some kind of language neutrality, or
> > offer bindings for Java, Smalltalk, LISP, Python... Something like the
> > promises made by .NET / C# .
>
> Currently GNUstep offers bindings for Java (JIGS), Smalltalk (I believe), and
> guile.
>

I am working on Smalltalk interpreter for GNUstep - StepTalk. It is meant mainly
for scripting GS apps or for talking to registered named DO objects or apps.

Some features:
    - Smalltalk syntax
    - block closures
    - exception handlig ([ "block ..."] handler: [ "exception handler
block..."].)
    - additions to GS classes instead of own classes (i.e. NSArray do:, select:,
detect:, ... NSNumber to:do: ...)
    - one or more methods in script
    - scripting descriptions
        - allow/deny selectors for particuliar classes (i.e. you can deny
selector removeFileAtPath:handler: of NSFileManager to prevent untrusted scripts
against deleting your files)
        - map binary selector to normal selector (i.e. ',' is mapped to
stringByAppendingString: for NSString class or '@' is mapped to objectForKey: 
for
NSDictionary class)
    - tools:
        stalk - talk to DO objecs and apps
        stexec - just executes scripts

It is almost working, but currently I have some problems with it. Mysterious
segfaults before main() and different behavior of library/executable with and
without debug=yes.

If there is someone who has a time, I would be very happy, if he/she could look
at it.

Thank you,

Stefan