Smalltalk and Object Orientation: an Introduction - Free

Figure 15.3: The Change List tool
The changes presented in the changes view often need to be filtered before being re -run. For
example, if the list of changes includes the creation of windows or test objects, you probably don’t need
to redo those commands. If the system crashed in response to a message sent, you probably don’t want
to resend that message etc.
Once you have got a list of changes which reflect the set of operations you want to perform you can
replay them using one of the replay options from the right mouse button (middle on a three button
mouse) menu.
15.5 Working with projects
15.5.1 Projects - what are they?
A project is a way of organizing your development environment. It allows the developer to manage a
number of different tasks at the same time within the same image. The way to think about this is that if
what you see on the screen can be viewed as the VisualWorks desktop, then projects allow you to have
multiple desktops for different parts of your work.
Why is this feature useful? Well consider that you are trying to draw a diagram on a flip chart. Then
you might see a blank page with a number of pens clipped to the side of it. This would be fine for some
diagrams, however, if you need to draw a number of associated diagrams, then you would either need to
get a larger flip chart, or you would have to use more pages. Projects allow you to use multiple pages,
each page having its own VisualLauncher. When you switch between proj ects, the layout of the screen
will be restored to the state of the screen when you last left that project. If the project has just been
created, then you will see only the visual Launcher.
15.5.2 Creating a new project
By default, when you start the VisualWorks image you are in the root project. To create a new project
you select the Open Project option off the changes menu on the VisualLauncher. In response to this,
the system displays the window illustrated in Figure 15.4. This allows you to provide some notes about
the project in a scrollable text window (for example, what the project is about, things to do etc.). This is
a good idea as it acts as a project documentation tool. It is also a good idea to ch ange the window label
to something which indicates the purpose of the project. This can be done using the right mouse button
(on a three button mouse). This displays a menu with a relabel as .. option.
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