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When you work with many programming languages, you write a program using an editor, producing a text file. If you want to share that program with another programmer, you simply provide that programmer with a copy of the text file.
When you work with Smalltalk, you do everything in a development environment; hence, there is, ordinarily, no file to copy. You must invoke the file-out mechanism to convey your programs to others.
When you file out, you tell Smalltalk that you want to write the definitions of certain classes or methods into a file in a form that allows those class or method definitions to be absorbed back into another programmer's development environment. Absorption is done when you file in.
*---------------------* *---------------------*
| | | |
| Environment 1 | | Environment 2 |
| | | |
*---------------------* *---------------------*
| ^
| |
File out | *---------------* | File in
| | | |
*------> | Transfer file | ------*
| |
*---------------*