Visual Smalltalk (VSE) was invented by Digitalk.  Digitalk was sold to
ParcPlace, which had a different Smalltalk, VisualWorks.  ParcPlace
renamed itself to ObjectShare and also stopped development on VSE. 
Then ParcPlace was sold to Cincom, which had yet another Smalltalk. 
Along the way VSE went through a number of version changes, the latest
being 3.1.something, I think.  I'd like to have a brief history, with
dates, of VSE.  That is, when did the various versions get released,
when were the sales of the companies and the company name changes,
when were the product name changes (from Smalltalk V to VSE,etc), when
was development discontinued, etc.

Thanks!

<I have been able to reconstruct a timeline for the various products
and companies from press releases and various articles.

1983 Digitalk Methods – first commercial release of Smalltalk
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:HgLZ_qtDAIgJ:content.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm%3Fterm%3DVISUALSMALLTALK%26exact%3D1+%22visual+smalltalk%22+release&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DigitalkMethods

1986, Smalltalk V, developed by Digitalk.

Early 1990’s Smalltalk V is renamed Visual Smalltalk – the latest
version was 3.12, update 3.13 from Cincom.
http://www.lesser-software.com/en/content/glossary.htm

May 22 1995 – announcement that ParcPlace Systems and Digitalk would
merge. New company to be named ParcPlace-Digitalk.
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:idlT8p6d5e4J:www.svifsi.ch/revue/pages/issues/n961/in961.pdf+%22parc+place+systems%22+digitalk+merge&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

August 1995 - ParcPlace-Digitalk - New corporate strategy announced. 
http://www.dbmsmag.com/news9511.html

1996 - ParcPlace-Digitalk press releases 
http://www.parcplace.com/about/press/press96.htm

Merger of Parc Place Systems and Digitalk. One and a half years later
the failure of Jigsaw -intended to bring VSE (client) and VisualWorks
(server) together.
http://wiki.cs.uiuc.edu/VisualWorks/Eliot+Miranda
February 1997 announcement that the company was moving away from
Smalltalk towards Java. Work on VSE stopped (new version released in
2000). http://wiki.cs.uiuc.edu/VisualWorks/ObjectShare
http://www.parcplace.com/whatsnew/letter_r.htm

1997 VSE dead product since late1997 
http://www.whysmalltalk.com/articles/todorov/stdotnet.htm

August 7, 1997 ParcPlace – Digitalk company name is changed to
ObjectShare Inc.
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:8nRskI-GsFcJ:www.parcplace.com/about/press/pr808.pdf+objectshare+press&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

March 1998 VisualWorks 3.0 released
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/What+Changed+from+VW+2.5.x+to+VW5i

May 5, 1998 Visual works, non-commercial released.
http://compilers.iecc.com/comparch/article/98-05-134

January 11, 1999 ObjectShare announces VisualWorks 3.0
http://www.redhat.com/about/presscenter/1999/press_jan1299.html

March 1999 Release of 5i.3
http://pub1.ezboard.com/fsmalltalkinteractivevisualworks.showPrevMessage?topicID=4.topic
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:AAxw3cQlzbUJ:www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/DOWNLOAD/DOCS/vwrn53.pdf+%22visualworks+5i%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

May 19, 1999 release of beta version of VisualWorks ST Plug-in
http://pub1.ezboard.com/fsmalltalkinteractivevisualworks.showPrevMessage?topicID=4.topic

Visual works 5i.4
White paper
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/VisualWorks+5i.4+White+Paper


August 31 1999 
Cincom Systems Inc. acquires the visual works product line from
ObjectShare Inc.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000119041948/http://www.cincom.com/press/PR_ATG_ObjectShare_31Aug99.shtml
http://www.objectshare.co.uk/ccpressrelease.htm
http://www.smalltalkchronicles.net/News1-2/news1-2.html

September 2000 VSE2000 (a new version of Smalltalk/V)
http://www.lesser-software.com/en/content/glossary.htm
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/VSE2000-Details.htm

June 1, 2001
Visual works 5i.2 is the last visual works release containing
Envy/developer.
http://www.oti.com/Welcome/oti060101.html

Visualworks 6 left out.
http://www.lesser-software.com/en/content/glossary.htm

August 3, 2002 – release of Cincom Smalltalk Summer 2002 Edition
(Visualworks 7.0 and ObjectStudio 6.7 environments).
http://www.cincom.com/scripts/smalltalk.dll/prodinformation/index.ssp?content=currentrelease
http://www.cincom.com/scripts/smalltalk.dll/prodinformation/index.ssp

Cincom smalltalk March 2003 – release of Visualworks 7.1
http://www.cincom.com/scripts/smalltalk.dll/community/digest/2003/april/index.ssp?content=marchfeatures

Late fall 2003 – planned release of Visualworks 7.2 (VW 7.2)
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/Cincom+Smalltalk+Fall+2003+Information


<Additional links:>

<Smalltalk – background>
<http://ite.gmu.edu/~enorris/363/smalltalk/sm.mirpour.html>
<Smalltalk – overview>
<http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=smalltalk>



<Search strategy:>

<digitalk press>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=digitalk+press>

<objectshare press>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=objectshare+press>

<failure of jigsaw digitalk>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=failure+of+jigsaw+digitalk>

<"visualworks 7.1" release>
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22visualworks+7%2E1%22+release>

<digitalk announced smalltalk –parcplace>
<://www.google.com/search?q=digitalk+announced+smalltalk+-parcplace&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&start=10&sa=N>


<Hope this helps.>

---

Request for Answer Clarification by wardtalktothebeaver-ga on 04 Aug 2003 10:07 PDT

belindalevez,

Thank you for this very helpful reply.  May I ask for just a bit more
information in one area?  There was a version of VSE called 3.1.  As
you pointed out, in late 2000, VSE 2000 was released.  What became of
3.1?  Were users required to upgrade to VSE 2000.  Was support dropped
for 3.1?  Any other information on the status of 3.1?

Thanks much!

ward

---

Clarification of Answer by belindalevez-ga on 05 Aug 2003 21:55 PDT

<Users of VW3.1 were advised to upgrade to VW5i

What changed from VW3.1 to VW5i
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/What+Changed+from+VW+3.1+to+VW+5i%3F

Advantages of moving to VW5i
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com:8080/CincomSmalltalkWiki/Why+Upgrade+VisualWorks

There is an email list that discusses upgrading 3.1.3./VSE2000 at 
http://www.lsoft.com/scripts/wl.exe?SL1=VSWE-L&H=LISTSERV.DFN.DE

VW3.1 is at support level F which means support has been discontinued
however according to their website ‘Cincom will make a reasonable
effort to consult on usage or to provide a work-around for problems
(including Year 2000 problems) on a reasonable effort, time and
materials basis, provided the customer is current on annual license
charge payments. All other support (e.g., patches or source changes)
is no longer available.’

The level of support for various versions of Visual Works.
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/CincomSmalltalkWiki/DIFF/14/13/Cincom+Smalltalk+Platform+Support+Guide>

<Hope this helps.>

This was good information.  There was a confusion in the answers
between VisualWorks(VW) and VisualSmalltalk (VSE).  These are 2
different products.  I'd still like to know when support was droped on
version 3 of VSE, if possible.

Thanks very much!