The Smalltalk-like collection classes are based on the language Smalltalk-80 and require that their collected objects singly or multiply inherit from the abstract base class RWCollectable.

These collection classes have a few disadvantages: they are slightly slower and not completely typesafe, and their objects are slightly larger. These disadvantages are easily outweighed by the power of these classes, and their clean programming interface. Most importantly, the Smalltalk-like collection classes are well-suited for heterogeneous collections and polymorphic persistence.

Many of the Essential Tools Module Smalltalk-like classes have a typedef to either the corresponding Smalltalk names, or to a generic name. This typedef is activated by defining the preprocessor macro RW_STD_TYPEDEFS. Although you are free to use typedefs, we do encourage you to use the actual class names to make your code more maintainable.