Hi guys, I've just opened: https://pharo.fogbugz.com/f/cases/14160/Introduce-isXXX-dialect-testing-meth... Introduce isXXX (isPharo, isVisualWorks, ...) dialect testing methods to SmalltalkImage to ease multi-dialect development. RATIONALE: Commonly used approach to solve differences among dialect is to use a sort of platform object and dispatch there for troublesome operations that has to be specialized. This platform object is usually in platform specific package. Other option is to load some library like Grease or Sport. The problem of the first approach is that brings to much (unnecessary) burden when used for two, three things. The amount of of the code and management is way to bigger then the amount of the code that has to be specialized. Loading Grease/Sport on the other hand introduces a dependency on an external package - not worth of for two or three things. The proposed dialect testing messages would allow for simple, #ifdef-like idiom like: | stream | ... ((Smalltalk respondsTo: #isSomeCoolDialect) and:[Smalltalk isSomeCoolDialect]) ifTrue:[ stream := CharacterWriteStream on: (String new: 10) ] ifFalse:[ stream := WriteStream on: (String new: 10) ] The #respondsTo: check, while not nice, is required as at the moment not all dialects could be trusted to have these testing messages. Putting these methods may not stick with Pharo standard (whatever it is), but Smalltalk global is probably one of the very few that are present in pretty much every Smalltalk implementation. Other option would be to place them to the class side of an Object (which is amost certainly present everywhere), however Smalltalk isPharo reads better than Object isPharo. Best, Jan