An object space is a collection of active Smalltalk objects loaded from a single Smalltalk image file. The Distributed feature object spaces are represented by the classes DsLocalObjectSpace and DsRemoteObjectSpace.

In the Distributed feature, the object space and its location are defined through the name server. A key and TCP/IP host name or address identifies an object space.

SST also uses the concept of object spaces. In fact, it provides two types of spaces: simple object spaces and full object spaces. The equivalent of the Distributed feature object space is the full object space, which maintains both an import and export set. The SST classes SstLocalSpace and SstRemoteSpace are used for full object spaces.

In SST, the management of object spaces is handled through applications contexts. Contexts maintain the distributed environment for an SST application and provide isolation from other applications. Object space locations are managed through machine objects and URL strings. URL strings take the format scheme:/transport/address. An example URL string is myScheme:/tcp/myserver.ibm.com:2345.