VA Smalltalk list parts are used to enable an application end user to view and select one or more items from the list. All the parts in the Lists category are portable to all supported VA Smalltalk platforms. List parts are normally used in conjunction with an Ordered Collection part, which contains the objects that are being viewed through the list part.

The major differences between each of the list parts are in:

The following list parts permit selection of a single item only:

The Multiple Select List part lets the user select multiple items. The Container parts support single selection, multiple selection, and no selection. The selection mode for Multiple Select List parts and Container parts can be set using the part's settings.

The various container lists in the Lists category allow a pixmap, bitmap, or icon graphic to be displayed along with any text for the item. This capability enables you to provide visual cues about the items to the end users of your applications. The Container parts do not use native controls on any platform. They are implemented completely within VA Smalltalk to maintain portability to all supported platforms.

All VA Smalltalk list parts provide some level of drag-and-drop capability. For information on drag-and-drop see Adding drag and drop support.