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How to get from java/C++/your favorite OO IDE to Squeak

Most programming environments have these basic parts -
The CodeBase is a bunch of (or one big) text files hold a program, class or module each. If you're using existing code (libraries, commonly) that means you have lots of preexisting textfiles (that possibly came with your environment) and your code refer to them.
A compiler/linker knows how to make individual textfiles into some sort of executable (exe, a.out, java bytecode...) format.
Some sort of configuration tool glues all this together, making sure that everything that needs to be compiled does get compiled, and usually that it gets compiled only as often as needed.

Finally, some sort of front end (IDE, emacs or plain text editor+prompt) allows you to use all the above tools to edit code.

Now we take a nubmber of steps to make sure we have a modern, convienient place to work in: