Smalltalk Environment Questions:
Q: What's the deal with all these different versions, and how do I pick the best one?
A: This section of the FAQ is covered in Smalltalk Environment Comparisons since it is quite broad.
Refactoring Browser Questions
Q: I'd really like to try a good Refactoring Browser in Smalltalk. What are my options?
A: (2012)Omni Browser built into Pharo Smalltalk 4.x. On the Squeak Smalltalk side, Omni Browser does not load after 3.9, so I had to give up on Squeak Smalltalk for now - Refactoring Browser is a necessity.
Q: Is there a Refactoring Browser available for Squeak Smalltalk, or Dolphin Smalltalk (especially Dolphin Smalltalk)?
A: The refactoring browser is built into the most recent versions of Dolphin Smalltalk (XP) as well as Visual Works 7 (See www.object-arts.com 
and www.cincom.com ) as well as Smalltalk/X (Smalltalk Ecks).
A: I went searching for something like this the other day. Apparently, a group of people at Camp Smalltalk started work on a Squeak port of the Refactoring Browser, and put up a temporary home page at www.bobjectsinc.com . I believe the port is incomplete, but I haven't tried it out yet, as I'm only just starting to learn Smalltalk. The page also links to two other porting efforts, though one of the links seems to be dead.
Other Smalltalk Tools
Q: What is ENVY, and why would I need it or want it?
A: I've only used ENVY briefly, but it is a shared source repository system for Smalltalk. In short, it's the equivalent of CVS - just a lot more transparent to use. ENVY is not, to my knowledge, free - nor is it cheap. In addition, I think it's not really supported any longer. This may not be true. I know that Cincom is pushing Store for use with Visual Works 5i.3 and up. Store is nice and it works well. -- Jeff Panici
Object Technology International has dropped ENVY support due to their new bloatware, Eclipse: eclipse.org . ENVY is dead.
Um, ENVY is perhaps dying, but not dead, as it is still the source code control system for Visual Age/Smalltalk. For more than you ever wanted to know about ENVY, see the book "Mastering ENVY/Developer" (disclaimer: I'm one of the people who wrote it). -- Alan Knight
Ibm is terminating support of Visual Age/Smalltalk. Envy is dead, unless it is somehow revived within Eclipse (there have been occasional rumors of this).
Q: What is Gem Stone, and why would I need it or want it? Why not just use a regular database?
A: Gem Stone is an Object Oriented Database. And, to answer your second question:
Well, this is a huge question. It gets right into the whole OODBMS vs. RDBMS battle. First, let me say that Gem Stone is a fine product, but a little aged in the OODBMS space. While I'm not certain, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that Gem Stone/S isn't actively supported any longer and Gem Stone/J is all but dead. However, you can get Gem Stone/S for Linux as a limited development download.
You'll have to make a personal determination on whether an OODBMS or RDBMS is best for your particular situation. -- Jeff Panici
Smalltalk Frameworks
Q: Smalltalk Unit (at least the one that comes with Squeak) doesn't give very informative failure messages when using "self should: [...]". Observe:
==== SUnit ======== Start ==== *** FAIL *** 24 run, 0 failed, 1 errors (50 ms) ---- SUnit ------- Errors ---- F''''''ooTest>>testFoo ==== SUnit ========== End ====
Did it fail because I passed it a faulty Bar? Was the Quuxume out of whack? How will I know?
A: The idea with SUnit (and xUnit in general), as I understand it, is not to put in lots of informative error messages. If a test fails, run it in debug mode, you'll get a debugger, and you can see immediately why it fails. It's the simplest thing that could possibly work. And having done it both ways, I find this much less time-consuming than trying to write tests that generate informative error messages. -- Alan Knight
Does anybody have a copy of David N. Smith's Smalltalk FAQ ? Please send me a copy if you have. -- Costin Cozianu
Smalltalk Reports
2014
November
See original on c2.com