>One of the things about Squeak that is slightly distracting is the
>appearance of the IDE. Is it possible to make Squeak look more like
>Dolphin (for Windows) or perhaps give it a KDE or Gnome look and feel.
>One way to do this would be to integrate it with WxWindows.
>
>Asim

Welcome to Squeak!

Your question is a very common one from new users.

In order to be platform independent, Squeak does virtually everything
itself, including menus, windows, etc.  Squeak avoids tight integration
with the host OS, because the behaviors are usually so different and it's
hard to make something that works well everywhere.  One of the goals of
Squeak, and one that differentiates it from the reality of Java, for
instance, is that Squeak images actually run bit identically across many
platforms.  Some of us use Squeak precisely _because_ of its lightweight
integration.

However, since everything is written in Smalltalk, and the source is
completely available and modifiable, you can certainly change the windows
to look like anything you want, including simulating the look and feel of
your favorite platform.  Some Squeakers have made the environment look more
like Windows, for instance.  All it takes is the inclination, some
knowledge about Smalltalk and Squeak's classes, and some coding.  One of
the first things I did with Squeak was to fiddle with the appearance of
windows.

As you get more familiar with Squeak, you'll begin to appreciate the
flexibility of this way of doing things, as long as you're not trying to
just use Squeak as an alternative to another programming language for
writing platform-specific applications.  While there is some active work
going on in that area, that's not a Squeak strength at the moment.

Have fun!

-- Duane