Much of the difficulty in Smalltalk and Java interaction stems from the lack of Java type information in Smalltalk. In many cases, SST can dynamically create Smalltalk representations of Java classes. Unfortunately, this is only possible when the Java object will not be sent messages by Smalltalk. It is not possible for Smalltalk to automatically derive the required information from Java.

SST provides a simple facility for producing and importing the Java type information required to serialize objects and transmit stubs. This support has two parts: a Java-based type repository (com.ibm.sst.JavaTypeRepository) and a Smalltalk-based type builder.

When you use the RMI Wizard Interface, you can also access Java type information from the VisualAge for Java image. See Setting up the VisualAge for Java Remote Access Tool to API and tool servlet interface and the VisualAge for Java documentation for more information on the RMI Wizard Interface and accessing information from VisualAge for Java.