Hi all,

I'm new to this list and new to Squeak, so please apologize my 
ignorance. After having read some wiki pages concerning the use of 
Squeak for writing "scripts", I would like to ask if it will ever be 
possible to use Squeak to program, let's say, a LaTeX-preprocessor, 
which can then be executed by an editor, e.g. Emacs. I read the pages 
saying that Squeak is more like an OS of its own and the like, which is 
why there would be no need to call Squeak code from the command line. 
But what do "Squeakers" do if they plan to program such a preprocessor? 
Do they use other program languages for these tasks? Don't they need 
such kind of programs? Thus, I would like to ask: Will it ever be 
possible to write Squeak code that can be called from "outside" Squeak?

BTW, is it/will it ever be possible to strip off all Smalltalk 
classes/methods, for which it can be proven that they are not needed 
for executing a specified block, from an image? I'm thinking of 
something like this: [1 + 2] stripUnnecessary. This would result in an 
image containing only the classes and methods needed for evaluating "1 
+ 2" and displaying the results.

Please don't hit me for asking this kind of questions. I'm only curious 
about possible uses of Squeak. I think Squeak is a really great 
environment, but I have to confess that I don't fully understand why 
its developers don't turn this into a more generally applicable tool.

Ciao,
Thomas.