Editing VisualWorks (section)

== Benefits and drawbacks ==
VisualWorks allows for very fast application development, as individual methods can be compiled even while the program to be developed is running. Compiling a Smalltalk method typically takes significantly less than a second, while doing the same for a [[C++]] project often takes a minute or more, and cannot be done easily without restarting the process. The various code browsers of VisualWorks help the developer to quickly locate a class or method of interest.

The performance and throughput of Smalltalk programs can approach the performance of static languages such as [[C++]], [[Fortran]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], or [[Ada (programming language)|Ada]] using a [[Just-in-time compilation|just-in-time compiler]] by generating machine code that is specialised for frequently used types, but numeric processing and programs that benefit from precise memory layout may still run slower. The generational [[Garbage collection (computer science)|garbage collector]] minimises most collection pauses, but may not be suitable for hard real-time and determinism requirements, as long full collections may occur, which may stop the world for tens to hundreds of milliseconds, proportional to heap size. However, garbage collection is preferable over manual memory management in an object-oriented language, and the programmer can take various actions to control when and for how long garbage collection occurs; so under most circumstances, garbage collection is not a concern.