Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1997 21:29:22 GMT Server: NCSA/1.4.2 Content-type: text/html CSE 341 -- Smalltalk in the PC Lab

CSE 341 -- Hints for using Smalltalk in the PC Lab

Here are some hints for using Smalltalk in the PC Lab.

Logging on

To log onto the PCs type: CTRL-ALT-DEL (all at once) you then get a prompt. Use your ordinary CS login name. The initial password is newuser; you will be asked to change that right away. Leave the "From" field in the login dialog box as it is (set to CSEPCLAB).

Starting Smalltalk

You should now have a screen showing a "Main" area within the program manager. Therein you should find an application named "Smalltalk". Click on it to start it up (double-click) and a window named "Visual Works" will open up. Double-click on that again and Smalltalk will come up with the main menu list and a workspace.

The Files that Smalltalk Uses

For the setup directions below to make sense, you should understand a bit about which different files Smalltalk uses. The executable program is called the image, and is normally named visual.im. This is a large file (over 4 megabytes). It contains all the code for the Smalltalk system, both all the classes that come with the system when you start it up, and also any new classes or modifications that you make.

You can inspect the source code for all of the methods provided by the system, as well as the source code for the methods that you write. This source code is stored in separate files (not in the image). The source code for the methods provided by the system is in the sources file. This is a read-only file on the network shared by all of the copies of Smalltalk. It is stored in the file

S:\visual\image\visual.sou
Your source code, for both system classes that you modify and new classes that you write, is in your changes file. All users need to have their own private changes file. The system will automatically put all your new code in this changes file.

Finally, you can explicitly file out a class or a category of classes, and put the code into a file. This will be a small text file, which you save on another machine, file into a fresh image, etc. (We'll call these fileout files.) Also this is the file that you should print out to hand in for your assignments.

Setting up Smalltalk (READ THIS!)

The following is very important: in order for Smalltalk to work properly for you it is essential that you do the following right away, before you start making changes to the system. What you need to do is tell Smalltalk about the sources and changes files.

Click on the file menu and select "settings".

Modify the sources directory to point to the file

S:\visual\image\visual.sou
Next, modify the changes directory to point to a file in your own home directory. Your home directory is named z:\username\. We suggest using the filename
z:\username\visual.cha
where you should replace "username" with your login name. Confirm your choice by clicking on accept.

When you leave Smalltalk you can either just choose exit, which will lose the state of your image, or else save the image file so that you can start up from where you left off. To save your current image, choose the "save then exit" option. When it prompts you for a file name, replace its suggestion with

z:\username\visual
This will save your image in the file visual.im in your directory (it will tack on the .im extension automatically).

Finally, you need to change the application associated with your image file (this will allow you to start up Smalltalk by double clicking on your image file in the file manager). To do this, open the Main folder and double click on the File Manager. Find your image file (z:\username\visual.im) and select it by clicking on it once. Then pull down the File menu of the File Manager, and select the Associate command. Change the association from F:\....\bin\OE20.EXE to S:\visual\bin\OE20.EXE.

Since the image file is large, save at most one image file. However, the fileout files are small, so you can save as many of them as you need.

The PC file systems are not currently backed up on tape. If you want to be safe, you can ftp your fileout files to another machine, such as lynx. (Don't ftp the image file, though; it's too big!)

Starting Smalltalk again

The next time you want to start Smalltalk (on any of the machines -- it doesn't have to be the one you used last time), you can either start from a fresh image, or from the image that you've already been working in. To start from the image you've been working in, go to the folder "main", and double click on the File Manager. Then double click on the file visual.im. You can also start from a fresh image at any time by following the directions above for setting up Smalltalk. If you do this, delete your old file visual.cha before starting the fresh image (otherwise it just keeps growing and growing).

You can also load a fileout file into an image to restore code. To do this, open a file list, select the file, and pick "File In" from the middle button menu.

Creating directories, viewing files etc.

To create directories simply start up the file manager from the main menu. It will allow you to browse through the file system and create and delete files and directories.

Telnet, ftp and other applications

These can be found in the accessories folder in the main program menu window. Just open that folder and you'll find ftp or telnet which allow you to copy files to/from the NT machines and connect to other machines. There are also nice little tools such as clocks etc.

One problem with ftp is that it doesn't seem to know about your current directory -- you can get around this by giving the full path name for files on the PC. For example, suppose you have a file squid.st in your home directory on the PC, and want to transfer it lynx. Use this command:

put Z:\yourname\squid.st squid.st
replacing "yourname" with your login name on the PC, of course.

Changing Your Password; Logging out from NT

To change your password, type CTRL-ALT-DEL (all at once) in any window. This will bring up a dialog box that lets you change your password. Another use is to see what tasks you have running -- this is useful, for example, if you can't log off due to some task currently running.

To log out from Windows NT go to the file menu of the program manager and choose "Logout". If that somehow doesn't seem to work it may be the case that you still have applications running. You should then first close those and then try again.


Shamelessly stolen from cse341 Autumn '95

cse341-webmaster@cs.washington.edu (Last update: 04/26/96 at 10AM )