StepTalk 0.12 review

StepTalk project is the official GNUstep scripting framework

License: LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License) File size: 405K Developer: Stefan Urbanek

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StepTalk project is the official GNUstep scripting framework. StepTalk is more than a scripting framework with an illusion of single objective environment between objects of scriptable servers or applications.

StepTalk, when combined with the dynamism that the Objective-C language provides, goes way beyond mere scripting. It is language independent - it uses languages as separate bundles.

The default scripting language in StepTalk is Smalltalk. This is because Smalltalk is a very simple language and it is easy to learn. There are just a few basic principles that the user has to know to be able to use the language and it is close to the natural language.

Smalltalk uses a similar approach to that of Objective-C, the language used in GNUstep itself.

StepTalk is a language independent framework. It can be extended by the "language bundles" providing other scripting languages. One experimental language bundle for Guile is included in the sources package.

Here are some key features of "StepTalk":
multiple languages
object finders
scripting environments
restrictions for object's methods
dynamic module loading

What's New in This Release:
The framework was ported to Mac OS X.
The new StepTalking application was added.
The StepTalkKit framework was added, and includes a new conversation window class with default context, a customizable toolbar, script history, and language selection.
New view classes were added for custom script input/output.
An AppKit bundle is included.
The source was reorganized into more logical groups.
Foundation and AppKit bundles now advertise all public Cocoa classes.
Constants from Foundation and AppKit are generated from a simple constants list file.