Squeak-dev March 1998

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67 participants
130 discussions

Squeak on Solaris/olvwmWas: On a more...(Inboard Squeak sources)
by Mike Klein 05 Mar '98

05 Mar '98

It appears that at inria.fr, the 1.3 changes file had the wrong line ends, at one point in time (when 1.3 was released) but the problem appears to have been corrected on 2 Feb 98. By the way, is anyone out there using Squeak on Solaris? I am using olvwm. Is anyone who is having problems with the VM hanging and screen not updating? The VM hang is "cured" by having the (OS-window/Squeak-Screen) lose and then regain focus. (The squeak screen still needs refreshing). -- Mike Klein

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Re: On a more...(Inboard Squeak sources)
by Chris Reuter 05 Mar '98

05 Mar '98

[I mentioned this in a previous message, but that seems to have gotten eaten by some network daemon.] It occurs to me that a lot of the problems that are attributed to having multiple source files could also be solved by 1) making sure that all necessary files are downloaded correctly and 2) that they are correctly installed. The first point can be implemented easily enough by putting together binary distributions for all the major platforms in some binary format (e.g. .zip or .tgz). If it decompresses, it was correctly downloaded, and all of the files you get match. As for installation, the easiest way is to just include a well-written README file. However, install programs tend to be the norm these days, and it would be nice to have some for Squeak. I envision an installer putting an initial image and sources file (containing all the sources--the change log is initially empty) in some common director and the VM somewhere in the search path (or whatever your OS does with programs and data). Typing (or clicking) Squeak the first time would then load the default image, which would open a change log in the current directory. Under Linux, I think most of this can be done with rpm and shell scripts (the only bit I'm not sure about is moving the changes into the sources file). I'm willing to take a crack at it once my network connectivity comes back (i.e. once I find a telephone extension cable :) if nobody beats me to it. I can't do any of the other platforms, unfortunately, but I'm sure _somebody_ out there can, and it would make Squeak a whole lot friendlier. It's not a difficult task. However, there hasn't yet been any pressure from the marketing department yet. --Chris

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Re: Prototypes
by Ken Dickey 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

>But speaking of common sense; People don't think in terms of classes. >There's been some psychological research into how people catagorize things >... >Lakoff's _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things_ (recommended by David Ungar) >is an good book on the subject. By the way, _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things_ is good but fairly heavy reading. I would recommend George Lakoff's _Metaphors we Live By_ as a starting point. [_More than Cool Reason_ is a good follow on to this]. Cheers, -Ken

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Printing Music Scores
by CYNTHIA NELSON 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

Hi, Well this is not quite as mundane as my first question about the "changing variable name syndrome." Thanks again to every- one who tried to help me with that. I now am attempting a project for school in which I think it would be kind of helpful if I could get some music manuscript to actually print on the screen. I can draw on the screen by hand with a mouse but I want to avoid that if possible. Encore and Finale which operate extremely well in Windows NT use an Anatasia font. I do a lot of professional scoring with these tools. I was wondering if any such font exists in Squeak. I have wandered around the Music libraries in Squeak but have no seem anything other than a way to print the alpha characters for the notes. I am trying to make a Music Ed tool for my private piano students with the assumption that they could download Squeak and run the program in the Squeak environment. The libraries for sound generation look pretty straightforward .....of course I have not really compiled anything yet. However, I plan to go beyond just playing or recording MIDI files. Any information would be helpful. Thanks. Cindy Nelson **************************************************************************** ******************************* Cynthia L. Nelson Phone: (770) 622-6805 P.O. Box 846 Fax: (770) 622-2779 Duluth, GA 30096 e-mail: cindynelson(a)abraxis.com

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Squeak APIs, TIFF & JPEG under Windows
by Alejandro F. Reimondo 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

I have updated the SqAPI interface for Squeak under Windows. And added TIFF and JPEG (load/save) image support as a demostration on how to use DLLs, Callbacks, ExternalStructures and ExternalMemory. Visit the download page: http://www.sugarWeb.com/Miniatures/DownLoad.html Remember: TIFF and JPEG support are demostrations and need the API interface. [The test image is of my wife, please treat it with care :-)] Cheers, Ale. He actualizado la interfaz a APIs para Squeak bajo Windows. Ademas he agregado soporte para imagenes TIFF y JPEG, a modo de demostracion de como usar DLLs, Callbacks, estructuras externas y memoria externa. Para bajarselos pueden visitar el sitio de SUGAR: http://www.sugarWeb.com/Miniatures/DownLoad.html Recuerden que el soporte de TIFF y JPEG requieren de mi interfaz API. [La imagen de testeo es de mi mujer, p/f tratenla con cuidado :-)] un cordial, Ale.

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Re: Prototypes
by David Stes 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

Steve Dekorte writes: > > Hey Dave, what changes ? You know that the "Portable Object Compiler" (my freeware Objective-C compiler) adopts the simple, class-based, traditional Objective-C model without changes to the basic object model. My point was that it's a good precedent, since global modifications to the instance creating methods - somewhat similar as what would be done to "prototypify" Squeak - were done for Objective-C and it was painful.

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Re: Prototypes
by Steve Dekorte 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

> > With classes you know where all the code is... With > > Prototypes, it is really easy to modify an object -- just > > add an instance variable, or add a method. You end > > up with thousands of variants. Most of these variant > > objects do not have names. Does every morph have a name? >I strongly agree with this. In my experience, classes have been a very useful organizing >principle; I wouldn't want to throw them away yet (I definitely wouldn't throw a party :). You really don't have to "throw away" anything. From a "class" consumer's point of view, there's no difference between a class and a proto with the clone method renamed "new". The only difference is more flexibility for the developer and you can limit that however you like in the development enviroment. The earlier point that flexibility/freedom is dangerous is true. Smalltalk has already made this trade off though. The fact that you can change a system class at runtime in Smalltalk means it's quite easy to corrupt the entire system from within it. But this is also very powerfull. I wonder what sorts of opposition the Smalltalk view of being able to change things at runtime and other dangerous features(no type checking, late binding...) ran into in it's early days? Steve

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Re: On a more mundane level Was: "Open Implementations
by Mike Klein 04 Mar '98

04 Mar '98

> > I still haven't figured out how to get all methods to look like they > > have proper line breaks. It makes browsing a real pain in the ... > Check what lineends appear to be in use in your sources. Some > braindead servers/machines/whatever 'help' you by converting them. It > needs to be just CRs in the sources and changes. I did it in VisualWorks (I don't think that qualifies as brain-dead) I'm pretty sure that I transfered the changes as binary. Maybe I messed up. Maybe somebody else did. The point is that I shouldn't have to do this. (I also shouldn't have to hit command-. to break out of the page-flipping-sound while trying to read "Back to the Future"). |input output | input := 'Squeak1.3.changes' asFilename readStream lineEndLF. output := 'newSqueak1.3.changes' asFilename writeStream lineEndCR. output nextPutAll: input upToEnd. "excuse lack of buffering... quick&dirty" output close. input close.

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Re: On a more mundane level Was: "Open Implementations
by Mike Klein 03 Mar '98

03 Mar '98

> Yup. I'm doing very fine on my memory-challenged (16M) Mac right now. > 4 M more in the image would make the machine swap, making Squeak > unusable. You're right that it would make newbies happier, but it hurts > others. > > Is the current mechanism where Squeak yells into your face upon image > startup not enough? I still haven't figured out how to get all methods to look like they have proper line breaks. It makes browsing a real pain in the ... Any suggestions? -- Mike Klein

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Re: Prototypes
by Brian Foote 03 Mar '98

03 Mar '98

Ralph Johnson and I descibed some work we did to allow more dynamic, per-instance changes to objects so that they could act more like prototypes many moons ago in Smalltalk itself in http://laputa.isdn.uiuc.edu/ref89/ref89.html at OOPSLA '89. In those days, there was no changeClassToThatOf:, so we had to <add> a class change primitive ourselves. We also added a bit to the object headers to force a doesNotUnderstand: like exception (dispatchMessage:) at the start of the lookup process instead of the end. Once you can clone yourself quickly, and change your parent/class pointer, the one thing left is adding a method or variable slot. You can do that by adding a LightWeight class (a.k.a. HeavyweightObject or MetaObject), or with instance "clone and becomes:" tricks. Adding a lightweight Behavior gives you a place to put methods or state. Extensible dynamic instance variables can also be simulated using dictionaries (http://laputa.isdn.uiuc.edu/dfc/discussion#Accessible) and doesNotUnderstand:. (The change class and dispatch hacks were patched in in binary, with MPW C , the assembler, and the debugger. We got a lot of bits under our fingernails...) Obligatory Squeak Content: these sorts of VM alterations are a <lot> easier under Squeak. The thing that was interesting about how Self did dynamic slots was the implicit meta-architecture under the hood (the maps and all) that made it possible to do these dynamic things, and yet run efficiently when you knew you weren't doing them. Since Self's VM was a big C++ program, making this part of the system first-class objects wasn't something they were too enthusiastic about. I was always frustrated that you couldn't get your hands on these too. I sense considerable enthusiasm for fleshing out this part of the architectural tale in this community: the objects that connect the object models and implementation. These can make experimentation with a variety of models possible. In any case, it's good to see the MOP hackers getting flushed out into the open... As for Mike's point about dangerous facilities, I'm for refactoring things in such a way as to give us the dynamic power to make such facilities easier to hide. --BF

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