Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!nott!cunews!dbuck
From: dbuck@superior.carleton.ca (Dave Buck)
Subject: Re: ****Smalltalk References Needed*****************
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Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
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Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995 07:15:28 GMT
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In article <453ad2$ctd@sol.sun.csd.unb.ca>, Lynch  <l90x> wrote:
>I need some smalltalk references that will give more detail on how the language
>is implemented.  For example, what types of inheritance does smalltalk permit
>and how is it enforced, other language implementation facts as well.  The only 
>books I have all deal with the high level end user aspects of Smalltalk.  Even
>a good OO book that will explain language implementation details is good.

There used to be a book which explained all this but it's now out of
print.  It was affectionately called "The Blue Book".  The actual
reference is:

   Smalltalk-80:  The Language and its Implementation
   Adele Goldberg and David Robson
   Addison Wesley
   1983

The book has now been replaced by "Smalltalk-80:  The Language"
affectionately called "The Purple Book".  It's virtually the same book
except that the last chapters 26-30 have been removed.  The chapters
were:
   The Implementation
       The Compiler
       The Interpreter
       The Object Memory
       The Hardware

   Specification of the Virtual Machine
       Form of the Specification
       Object Memory Interface
       Objects Used by the Interpreter

   Formal Specification of the Interpreter
       ..sections on all the bytecodes

   Formal Specification of the Primitive Methods
       ..sections on all the primitives

   Formal Specification of the Object Memory
       ..sections on the heap, garbage collection, etc.

The sections were removed because they were extremely detailed and out
of date.  They were, however, a good reference on how the system
worked in theory if you skipped all the details.

There is a book on Little Smalltalk by Timothy Budd which discusses
implementation details.  Sorry, but I don't have the exact reference
to that one.  Most Smalltalk books only talk about the language and
how to program in it, not how the langauge works inside.

David Buck
dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca

_________________________________
| David K. Buck                 |
| dbuck@ccs.carleton.ca         |
| The Object People             |
|_______________________________|

