is *.im a st80 image file?

Douglas E. Hammond deh at mercury.interpath.com
Fri Jun 12 00:25:53 UTC 1998


Geox wrote:

> I got a program to modify an "ancient" Smalltalk (st80) base software,
> it runs under Windows3.1 with a command line "st80.exe xxxx.im".
> I think that *.im is the image file(?), now I want to transfer it to
> a newer Win95 base platform . How can I do this? help me please

Hans-Martin replied:

> It's probably an old ParcPlace Systems (now ObjectShare) Smalltalk-80.
> [...]

[Sorry.  I can't lay hands on my old DOS directory listings just now.]

If these look familiar:

s8b:
total 24
drwxr-xr-x   3 deh      other        2048 Nov 24  1960 .
drwxr-xr-x  28 deh      other       16384 Jan  1  1970 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other         428 Feb  3  1986 install.bat
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other         955 Jul 13  1987 install2.bat
drwxr-xr-x   2 deh      other        2048 Mar  8  1995 release

s8b/release:
total 2068
drwxr-xr-x   2 deh      other        2048 Mar  8  1995 .
drwxr-xr-x   3 deh      other        2048 Nov 24  1960 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        7682 Feb  4  1986 animatin.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1027 Oct 16  1985 blueinsp.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other         392 Feb 17  1987 char.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        4960 Oct 14  1985 clock.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1298 Oct 30  1985 comander.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        2798 Jul 13  1987 dosfiles.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1254 Sep 16  1986 dynmscrl.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        7301 Feb  4  1986 financia.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        2807 Oct 16  1985 findclas.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        5880 Feb  4  1986 hand.st
-r-xr-xr-x   1 deh      other         740 Jan 28  1987 msm.com
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1741 Feb  4  1987 printout.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        3547 Oct 17  1985 project.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        4069 Oct 31  1985 protocol.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1672 Jul 13  1987 readme
-r-xr-xr-x   1 deh      other       60006 Jul 13  1987 st80.exe
-r-xr-xr-x   1 deh      other      594944 Jul 13  1987 st80v2.im
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other     1393824 Mar  8  1995 st80v2.st
-rwxr-xr-x   1 deh      other        1372 Feb  4  1986 toothpa.st

then we're looking at a system only marginally different from "vanilla"
Smalltalk-80 Version 2:

'From Smalltalk-80, version 2, of April 1, 1983
                                       on 11 March 1986 at 10:28:33 pm'!

This system was marketed by SoftSmarts, Inc. (now long defunct).  It
featured a 286 protected-mode interpreter and a hardware protection
device (a.k.a. a "dongle").

I'm a bit surprised to learn that the interpreter ran on top of Win 3.1.
I'd be very surprised if it ran on top of Win 95.

Though it's possible to write an interpreter for an image of this
vintage, or to simply hack on the Smalltalk sources file (st80v2.st),
Geox might be better advised to consider a more actively supported
system such as Squeak.

- Doug





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