Editing VisualWorks (section)

== String and files ==
[http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/tutorials/version7/tutorial1/ Cincom's first tutorial on VisualWorks] illustrates how VisualWorks can be used to manipulate [[Server (computing)|server]] [[Computer data logging|log files]]. It illustrates how things like [[String (computer science)|strings]] and [[Computer file|files]] can be easily subsumed into the object structure within VisualWorks. Consider the Smalltalk [[Expression (programming)|expression]]:

 'ws000101.log' asFilename edit

One can evaluate this expression as-is in a VisualWorks workspace using one command in the operate menu. This creates:

# An [[Object (computer science)|object]] of class ByteString containing the string (as [[byte]]s) and the [[Method (computer science)|methods]] for manipulating it;
# An object of class [[NTFS]]Filename (in [[Windows XP]]); and
# An editor object.

The latter is a simple [[notebook]]-like editor containing the contents of the file. That is, the evaluation created a [[filename]] object as a gateway to the file <code>ws000101.log</code> and opened an editor onto it. The editor itself is an object, as are all its components (down to and including the characters in its menus). The source code is available for all these objects, and VisualWorks has a plethora of inspectors, browsers, and other tools for anyone to evaluate and inspect the code in static or dynamic mode.