Was (wer) ist VisualWorks - definition

VisualWorks (formerly ObjectWorks, afterward Cincom Smalltalk) is a cross-platform implementation of the Smalltalk language. It is implemented as a development system based on images, which are dynamic collections of software objects, each contained in a system image.

The lineage of VisualWorks goes back to the first Smalltalk-80 implementation by Xerox PARC. In the late 1980s, a group of Smalltalk-80 developers spun off ParcPlace Systems to further develop Smalltalk-80 as a commercial product. The commercial product was initially named ObjectWorks, and then VisualWorks. On August 31, 1999, the VisualWorks product was sold to Cincom Systems. VisualWorks runs under many operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and several Unix versions.

VisualWorks supports cross-platform development projects, because of its built-in multi-platform features. For example, a graphical user interface (GUI) application needs to be developed only once, and can then be switched to different widget styles. A VisualWorks application can be run on all supported platforms with no modifications. Only the virtual machine is platform-dependent.