Aaron,

  I was such a text editor guy when I started using Squeak, and still
am when I do things other than Squeak (Some Squeak work, I do use my
Meadow (Emacs), I should add).  So I think I understand.  (I was so
obsessed by the idea of not leaving my hands from the home position,
the enter key was mapped to a Right-Control-key.)  Grep, make,
compile, tag jump, directory and file manipulation, etc., etc. are all
done by keyboard and I like that kind of fluency, too.

  (The first VM port I did was when I even didn't know the fact that
Squeak VM code was generated from Squeak...)

  But, a few hours lesson on Squeak development tools should pay off a
lot.  Getting the cross-reference on a live system and hands on to it
is different from reading code.

  In the other words, the generated HTML or text-based "source" is not
source code, rather generated target code.  To learn something, put
yourself in the form and context in which the author wrote it.  It is
documented objects, in a sense.

  Again, just select any "word" in the code, and try (all) the menu
items in the right-click context menu.  Especially, in 'more...' menu,
'browse it (b)' through 'method strings with it (E)' are the important
ones.

  Learn how to use inspectors, and send messages to the inspected
object.  If you learn about how to use Squeak's explorer, you can
traverse the parse tree of method and check each node, etc.  This live
experiment is the best way to "get the larger picture", I think.

  Please spend a few hours, and I hope you see the point,

  Just my 2 cents,

-- Yoshiki

At Sun, 5 Dec 2004 06:59:54 -0000,
Aaron Gray wrote:
> 
> >> >  I guess somebody should ask this... but if your purpose is to get
> >> > good cross refernces but nothing else, forget about going HTML.
> >> >
> >> >  Did you happen to notice the 'explain' menu item in the 'more...'
> >> > menu of code panes?  select a "word" in the pane and choose the menu.
> >> > It explains what it is, and even show how to get the "cross
> >> > references" to the thing.
> >>
> >> Thanks, but I still prefer the HTML, that is very useful though.
> >
> >  Would you mind to tell my why?  Again, do you want to have a good
> > cross-references when you are writing code, or there is some other
> > requirement?
> 
> I am trying to understand the VM and System Compiler and find the browser 
> too fiddly to get the large picture.
> 
> The HTML generated by Dandelion looks great.
> 
> But I would also like to have the code outputted into .st files for reading 
> in a text editor. How can I do this ?
> 
> >  I just wondered what would be the HTML's advantage than more live
> > and dynamic and language context aware "cross-referencing" features of
> > Squeak development tools such as 'senders', 'implementors', 'inst var
> > refs', 'inst var defs', and others.
> 
> The basic cross referencing problem I was to find which class a method 
> belonged to.
> 
> I am not too keen on the SmallTalk browser, I am used to programming using a 
> text editor, make, and 'flat' documentation.
> 
> A combination of both browser and HTML taking the best of both worlds is 
> probably the best approach though :)
> 
> Aaron
> 
> 
>