Smalltalk: Writing output to a file

Question

Usually with my output I am writing it to the Transcript with...

Transcript show:

How does one write the output to a file instead?

Answer 1

You want to use a FileStream

See this link describing FileStreams

Excerpt below:

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FileStream FileStreams support all of ExternalStreams protocol. They can be created to read, write, readWrite or append from/to a file. Creation:

* for reading:

      aStream := FileStream readonlyFileNamed:aFilenameString

* to read/write an existing file:

      aStream := FileStream oldFileNamed:aFilenameString

* to create a new file for writing:

      aStream := FileStream newFileNamed:aFilenameString

The above was the internal low level instance creation protocol, which is somewhat politically incorrect to use. For portability, please use the companion class Filename to create fileStreams:

* for reading:

      aStream := aFilenameString asFilename readStream

* to read/write an existing file:

      aStream := aFilenameString asFilename readWriteStream

* to create a new file for writing:

      aStream := aFilenameString asFilename writeStream

* to append to an existing file:

      aStream := aFilenameString asFilename appendingWriteStream

Answer 2

| fileName aStream |

fileName := (Filename named: 'stream.st').

aStream := fileName readAppendStream.

aStream nextPutAll: 'What is the best class I have ever taken?'.

aStream cr.

aStream flush.

aStream nextPutAll: 'It is the VisualWorks Intro class!'.

aStream close.