IBM Smalltalk User's Guide
The following terms are used to describe the packaging process:
- Packaging
- Packaging is the process of producing a new image containing the
applications, classes, methods, and variables that you specify. The
packager extracts the new image from the current development image.
- Development image
- The development image is the image in which you write code and from which
your applications' code is extracted.
- Output image
- The output image is the new image produced on disk as a result of running
the packaging process. It contains your application in a ready-to-run
form.
- Packaged image
- The packaged image contains information about which applications, classes,
methods, and variables will be extracted from the development environment and
written to the output image. The packager provides facilities to browse
and change what is contained in a packaged image. The term
packaged image is often used to refer to the output image as well
as the representation of the output image in the development
environment. The context makes it clear which meaning is being attached
to the term.
- Packaging instruction
- A packaging instruction represents basic information for packaging, such
as packaging options, the base set of applications to package, and a core set
of rules.
There are different packaging instructions available, depending on what
type of packaged image is desired. You can create your own packaging
instructions that serve as the template for packaging your application.
- Packaging rules
- Packaging rules define how the packaging process should produce a new
image. Rules are assigned to classes, variables, and methods.
Rules describe which components are to be included in the output image.
Rules can describe transformations that must occur. For example,
methods in the development environment can be replaced by different methods in
the output image.
The initial set of rules for a packaged image come from the packaging
instruction and from the applications being packaged. By distributing
the rules for packaging to the applications, each application becomes more
self-contained and "packager friendly."
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