VAST Platform (VA Smalltalk) code is held in a code repository, also referred to as a manager library or development library. If you are currently using VisualAge Smalltalk or VA Smalltalk or a previous version of of VAST Platform, then after the successful installation of your new version of VAST Platform (VA Smalltalk) you will have at least 2 development libraries on your system. In the following discussion, we will refer to the development library you have been using as the existing development library and the development library installed with the current version of VAST Platform as the new development library.

To prepare for migration, you need to merge these two libraries. You can either:

Both mechanisms are equally valid. Which is right for you depends on your goals.

If you import the new development library into your existing larger library, you can keep all your open editions of methods, classes, applications, and configuration maps.

On the other hand, the library can often fill up with purged, scratch, open editions from over the many years of working with the manager. Migrating to a new version could be a grood opportunity to reduce the size of the manager (sometimes significantly). In this case, you can take advantage of the fact that since the Library Importer Tool will only carry over versioned items and choose to import your existing larger library into a clean new development library.

Whatever you do, make a backup of your existing development library in case you want to explore the other direction.