nelson - wrote:

> Hi all,
>    i can't figure out how to test the existance of a file. The book 
> i'm reading says to use
>
> aFileName exists
>
> but if i create a filename from a string sending the message
>
> aString asFilename

That works in the VisualWorks dialect. They have a class Filename with 
appropriate platform subclasses, and Filename objects can do all sorts 
of filesystem-related tasks (such as checking for existence, enumerating 
directory contents, creating streams etc).
I like the concept - it makes dealing with files pretty easy.
But Squeak does not implement it that way, although it, too, has evolved 
quite a bit relative to the original Smalltalk-80 file handling.

Cheers,
Hans-Martin