I can't speak to all Smalltalks, but I know that isn't the case with Pharo. GNU Smalltalk can construct an image from source. Redline doesn't yet have an image,

I can't speak to all Smalltalks, but I know that isn't the case with Pharo. GNU Smalltalk can construct an image from source. Redline doesn't yet have an image, we are still working out how that would work with our play nice in the jvm ecosystem ideals. What it means to have 'original sources' though is a rather long and complicated historical answer. There have been a couple of good Smalltalk version control systems ( Envy & Monticello come to mind ). I don't want to go into a long explanation of what the image is and the various ways different people use it, so I'll just leave it at. All smalltalks support some form of version control ( some svn like, some dvcs like, some git, etc etc ). Redline isn't tied to an image and we don't intend to make it a requirement to use.