A workspace allows you to enter smalltalk code and execute it
(this is also refered to as immediate execution,
since you can typeIn some piece of code and immediately evaluate it)
Select the workspace item in the
Launchers
tools menu for a new workspace.
The above opens a view which looks similar to:
You can use workspaces as text scratchpads, as copyBuffers or
to evaluate Smalltalk expressions (which is their main use).
Expression evaluation is called
"doIt evaluation", or "doIt" for short.
Also, you can evaluate some smalltalk code and have the result printed into the workspace. This operation is called "printIt". In the following, we will refer to both actions as doIt.
DoIts are perfect to try out something quickly; you can evaluate expressions to send messages, without a need to write a program which remains permanently in the system (and has to be removed later).
To execute some smalltalk code, type it into the workspace:
select it (using the mouse):
and evaluate it with the workspaces middle-button printIt menu function:
the result is displayed in the workspace:
There are also keyboard accelerators for the most common operations; "doIt" is usually bound to "Alt-d" and "printIt" to "Alt-p". A list of accelerators is found in "Getting started - Keyboard accelerators".
Try a few expressions; such as:
1 + 2
2 sqrt
Transcript showCR:'hello world'
Transcript showCR:(2 sqrt)
Workspace open
So, if you get into the debugger while evaluating the following examples, simply press the debuggers abort button and retry whatever you did (but look for any typing errors - otherwise you may get another debugger)
To get used to the debugger, try the following example
(which contains an error) in a workspace;
do not try it from within the document browser -
the browser catches errors and displays a warning - instead of opening
a debugger window):
In the debugger, press "abort" to leave the erronous execution.
1 / (1 min:0)
For more information on what is shown in the debugger and how to use
it, read "Using the Debugger".
Copyright © Claus Gittinger Development & Consulting
Copyright © eXept Software AG
<cg@exept.de>