We have an interesting project going on right now - we call it ObjectStudio in VisualWorks. As you probably know, Cincom Smalltalk consists of two Smalltalk environments - ObjectStudio and VisualWorks. Most of our customers use one or the other, but we do have a number now who are using both. That number is going to increase soon, I expect.

ObjectStudio is a pure Windows development environment, and is usually used for Client/Server projects. VisualWorks is cross platform, and suitable for a wider range of projects. The biggest difference between the two has been at the VM level - VW has a modern, JITing VM which is very fast, and very scalable. ObjectStudio, on the other hand, has a slower, purely interpreted VM. Additionally, an awful lot of things that are implemented at the image level in VW are implemented at the VM level in ObjectStudio.

Which explains where we are taking ObjectStudio - into VisualWorks. ObjectStudio will ship as a separate image (we also plan to make it loadable), hosted inside the VisualWorks environment. That's going to entail some changes for ObjectStudio developers, but it will also entail a number of new capabilities - every feature of VisualWorks will be available in ObjectStudio, and every feature of ObjectStudio will be available in VisualWorks.

There will be some changes - at present, ObjectStudio threads map to native Windows threads. In the OST in VW release, ObjectStudio threads, like VW ones, will map to Smalltalk level green threads. Using the VisualWorks VM, ObjectStudio applications will be a lot faster. There will also be some code changes necessary - we will have a white paper detailing that list ready shortly.

The good news is this - the key features of ObjectStudio:

• Native Windows GUI
• Database Modeling Tools
• OLE embedding

will all be available - just as importantly, these will all be available for VisualWorks developers as well. This is not simply a change and upgrade for ObjectStudio developers, but a set of new capabilities for VisualWorks developers as well.

Stay tuned for the white paper - I'll have links once it's ready. As to timing? We may have early access (meaning, pre-beta level) available this winter. As engineering moves through the development cycle, I'll have more details.