Squeak
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article is about the programming language. For the food, see bubble and squeak.
The Squeak programming language is a Smalltalk implementation, derived directly from Smalltalk-80, by Smalltalk's originators, so it is object-oriented, and reflective. It may be downloaded at no cost and includes source code but there is some debate as to whether the Squeak license qualifies as free software or not. It is available for many platforms, and programs produced on one platform run bit-identical on all other platforms. The Squeak system includes code for generating a new version of the virtual machine (VM) it runs on. It also includes a VM simulator written in itself (Squeak). For this reason, it is easily ported.
Squeak has four user interfaces:
- An implementation of Morphic, Self's graphical, direct object-manipulation framework. This is Squeak's main interface.
- Tile-based, limited visual programming scripting in eToys, based on Morphic.
- A Zooming User Interface (ZUI), based on Morphic.
- Model-View-Controller (MVC), the traditional interface of some languages such as Smalltalk-80 and Java, and for which Morphic is an alternative. This is for programmers who wish to use this older type of interface.
Squeak incorporates many of the elements Alan Kay proposed in the Dynabook concept, which he formulated in the 1960s. Kay is an important contributor to the Squeak project. Kay, and many other Squeak contributors also collaborate on the open source Croquet project, which is built on Squeak, and offers a networked, real time, collaborative workspace with 2D and 3D abilities.
Squeak has been part of the computer science curriculum at the Georgia Institute of Technology for several years, and some faculty members take an active part in the growth and development of the language. It is commonly used as part of a course on object-oriented development due to its availability and features.
Squeak's mascot is a mouse, a hint of its origins at Disney.