VisualWorks(R) 7.7 Previews ReadMe
Copyright Cincom Systems, Inc. 2009. All rights reserved.


PURPOSE OF THIS README FILE

This README identifies the product components that are included
with this release as "beta test" software.  As such, the
software is generally functional, but not finished.  Some items
are more unfinished than others; all are in preparation for
inclusion in a later release.

Your use of this software is subject to the terms of agreement
contained in the accompanying license (preview/license.txt),
which you must read and agree to before using these components.

For usage notes, read the accompanying text files, and also see
the Previews section of the VisualWorks Release Notes for this
release in the /doc directory.  For a list of the full contents 
of these beta directories, refer to fileList.txt

For installation instructions for VisualWorks add-ons, refer to
the VisualWorks Installation Guide (Install.pdf).

The components currently in Beta Test are:

 - 64-bit ImageWriter
   A parcel containing support for writing 64-bit vm compatible 
   Smalltalk images, and a pre-built 64-bit image (in 
   preview/64-bit/).
   
 - Base Image
   An early version of a minimal image designed for use to 
   deploy an application only using loadable parcels (in
   preview/packaging/).
   
 - Asian Support
   Localization support and encoding for several Asian locales
   (in preview/asia/).
   
 - Cairo Graphics Support
   A binding for accessing the Cairo Graphics libraries (in 
   preview/cairo).
 
 - COM Generic Interfaces
   A binding that allows calling COM VTable Objects without having 
   to define types in VisualWorks (in preview/GenericInterfaces/).
 
 - COM UDT Support
   Enables COM Connect to call COM functions that use user defined 
   parameter types (in preview/com udt support/).

 - Diggy
   Incorporates features of the Trippy inspector in the debugger 
   (in preview/paracels/)

 - GLORP
   Extensions to GLORP, such as Active Record and utilities (in 
   preview/glorp).

 - Grid
   Similar to a DataSetView, a Grid widget uses a sequencable list 
   as a base collection of elements and displays content upon each 
   item in columns.  It allows for dynamic editing of this content
   (in preview/grid/).
 
 - IDNA (Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications)
   An implementation of RFC 3490, for domain names to use characters 
   outside the ASCII set (in /preview/parcels/).
 
 - Multi-threaded COM
   Enables COM Connect to perform nonblocking calls (in
   preview/multithreaded com/).

 - OpenSSL encryption
   An implementation of some popular encryption libraries provided 
   by OpenSSL (in preview/security/).
 
 - Opentalk CORBA
   Beginnings of recasting DST in the Opentalk framework (in 
   preview/opentalk/iiop/).

 - Opentalk Profiler
   A distributed profiling tool for Opentalk (in preview/opentalk/).
   
 - Opentalk Debugger
   A debugger for distributed images (in preview/opentalk/).

 - Polycephaly
   An experimental package providing a simple mechanisms for spawning 
   multiple running copies of the image and using those to perform 
   various tasks in parallel. This is primarily useful when attempting 
   to utilize hosts with multi-core CPUs. 
 
 - Smalltalk Archives
   A mechanism for packaging a collection of parcels into a compressed
   file, preserving load order and override behavior (in preview/parcels).

 - Sparing Scrollbars
   Extensions to UI classes and the UIPainter to implement optional 
   dynamic scrollbars (in preview/Sparing Scrollbars/).

 - Supra Database Support
   EXDI, Thapi, and Store support for Cincom's Supra database 
   (in preview/database/).

 - Store for DB2
   Support for Store with DB2 backend (in preview/store/).
 
 - Store for Supra
   Support for Store with a Supra backend (in preview/store/).
   
 - Store for MS Access
   Replacements for prior Access support that allows updating
   database tables (in preview/store/).
   
 - Store for Smalltalk Archive
   Support for using SmalltalkArchives with Store (in preview/parcels/).
 
 - UUID
   Support for UUID (in preview/parcels/).
   
 - VisualWorks Multi-version launcher
   This launcher works on Unix/Linux platforms, similar to the
   one for Windows, to launch a specified VM for each image
   version stamp (in preview/bin/).

 - XSchema 
   Support for XSL  (in preview/parcels).

 - WriteBarriers
   A framework for immutability exception tracking (in preview/parcels/).


11/16/2009  bb