Preface
Preface
 
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Before using this document, read the general information under Notices.
Version 8.0, 2008
This edition applies to Version 8.0of the VA Smalltalk products, and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Make sure you are using the correct edition for the level of the product. The term "VA Smalltalk", as used in this publication, refers to the VA Smalltalk product set. .
If you have comments about the product or this document, address them to:
      Instantiations, Inc.
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You can fax comments to (503) 684-8355 or email to vast-support@instantiations.com.
When you send information to Instantiations, you grant Instantiations a non-exclusive right to use or distribute the information in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you.
© Copyright 2005, 2008 Instantiations, Inc. All Rights Reserved
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1995, 2002. All rights reserved.
Starting up
If you haven't already installed VA Smalltalk, refer to the Installation Guide for information on how to install the product. The VA Smalltalk installation program installs all the necessary files for your development environment.
 
Working with the Composition Editor
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You use the Composition Editor to construct new parts. These new parts can contain other parts as well as connections between parts. You can think of the parts you construct in the Composition Editor as composite parts, because they contain other parts. While you can use the Composition Editor to construct various types of composite parts, you mainly use it to construct composite visual parts. The composite parts you build make up your application.
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Until you learn to identify all of the tool bar and palette icons by sight you can always rely on hover help to assist you. To display hover help for a tool bar or part palette item just position your mouse pointer over the icon you are interested in. Hover help will display a brief description for several seconds and then turn itself off.
Tool bar
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Most of the tools in the tool bar act on selected parts. If no parts are selected for a tool to act on, the tool is disabled.
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The Tools pull-down menu also provides access to these tools.
For more information about the individual tools, refer to the VA Smalltalk help system.
 
Free-form surface
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Regardless of the type of part, every part has a pop-up menu that contains options you can use to modify or work with that part. Each part has its own pop-up menu that can be accessed from any open area on the surface of the part.
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On AIX, turn NumLock off when dropping parts Be sure that your numlock key is turned off if you are using the composition editor. The numlock will prevent parts from being dropped on the free form surface of the Composition Editor.
Using the Quick Start window
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A VA Smalltalk application contains all the parts that make up your application. Parts are represented as classes within the application you create.
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Application names and part names must begin with a capital letter, are case sensitive, and cannot contain spaces. If an application name or a class name consists of multiple words, do not type spaces between the words, but instead capitalize the first letter of each word. For example, ToDoListApp
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If you have used VA Smalltalk previously and the Quick Start window does not appear when you first start, you can open it by selecting Quick Start from the Tools pull-down menu on the Organizer.
Making the attribute-to-attribute connection
To make this attribute-to-attribute connection, do the following:
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To start the connection, display the pop-up menu for the Ordered Collection part and select Connect, then self.
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To complete the connection, click mouse button 1 on the List part. Select items from the pop-up menu that appears.
A connection line is now displayed from the Ordered Collection part to the List part.
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The connection menu is the menu associated with the Connect menu choice on a part's pop-up menu. The connection menu contains the most frequently used features when making connections. This shortened list is often referred to as the preferred connection list.
The connection menu is displayed when you select Connect from the part's pop-up menu and when you click on the target part for the connection.
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