Squeak-dev April 1998

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107 participants
279 discussions

Re: Interpreter Plugins
by jim benson 10 Apr '98

10 Apr '98

Andreas wrote: Andreas Raab wrote: > Why don't we just take > out stuff that is not needed to actually run squeak in some sort of > plugins?! The only thing which would be needed is a well-defined > interface > to access, register and unregister from the VM. Than we could put a > whole > lot of stuff in separate classes (such as BitBlt) and keep the actual > interpreter small. > > Even more, we could build customized VMs for certain application > domains > which might not include networking, sound, or even file support (if > its > running a bare chip system). Also, adding new stuff would be probably > much > easier - you would not have to modify the Interpreter but could just > create a new plugin which can be translated into C code. I like this approach. If we could seperate most of the machine specific I/O out of the Interpreter and place the support into "plug-ins", this could satisfy most of the concerns that have been voiced on the list lately. Shrinking Squeak for hand held devices seems diametrically opposed to multi-megabyte devolopment environments. A configurable VM would seem to solve this problem nicely. A facility for message passing from the VM should also be formalized. Here is an example: I am currently working on native widgets for the Mac. The Mac VM event dispatching loop is sprinkled throughout the VM. When a window update event is received, the VM passes the event to C support code. What I would like to do is pass a message from the VM to an window object in Squeak saying "this window needs updating". Of course, a pluggable event handler in the VM would mean that a person on a big machine could write their event handler in Smalltalk, while a person writing for a hand held device could keep all of their event support code in C. This of course brings up another question -- how do we handle image startup / configuration ? Jim Benson

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Icons!
by Reinier van Loon 10 Apr '98

10 Apr '98

Squeakerts, Icons.cs is now available! Colors correct (thanks for the help). It allows you to read Windows icons and draw/move them on ze deskytop. --tim's icon is included. File-in and evaluate 'Form exampleIcon' (make sure squeak.ico is in your current directory). Boris, I even managed to put a legal file name into exampleIcon@Form class (I think a dot is valid?) ;-)). Have fun, Reinier. BTW To have an idea how bad things can get when working with mouse icons have look at the Download Area. --- Want to express your thoughts? Use Smalltalk. --- Reinier van Loon (rvloon(a)inter.nl.net or reinier(a)2share.com) Squeak Download Area at http://web.inter.nl.net/users/R.L.J.M.W.van.Loon/Squeak/download.html Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="Squeak.ico" Content-Description: Squeak.ico (Icon) Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Squeak.ico" Attachment converted: Cog:Squeak.ico (????/----) (0000CD0D) Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="Icons.cs" Content-Description: Icons.cs (Change Set) Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Icons.cs" Attachment converted: Cog:Icons.cs (????/----) (0000CD0E)

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Re: Newbie question
by Reinier van Loon 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

On Windows Squeak: 1. Left-click and hold on desktop. This shows a menu. 2. Select 'open...' This opens a second menu. 3. Select 'open browser' This shows the categories of classes to the left. 4. Select a category. This shows the classes in the category to the right of the category. 5. Select a class. This shows the message categories for the selected class. 6. Select a message category. This shows the messages in the selected category. 7. Select a message. This shows the method. Hope this helps. Reinier. ---------- > From: Steve Dekorte <steve(a)inquisit.com> > To: squeak(a)cs.uiuc.edu > Subject: Newbie question > Date: Tuesday, April 07, 1998 4:11 AM > > > I like being able to browse classes but how do I browse objects in Squeak? > > Steve

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RE: Interpreter Plugins
by Alejandro F. Reimondo 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

Andreas, To support my implementation of sqAPIs without Interpreter's code modification I've implemented a minimum framework for VM plugIns. The addition of sqAPIs and other VM modules can be done without Interpreter's code modification. And the VM C code is built evaluating an expresion like: VirtualMachineSourceBuilder current plugAll; plug: myPlugIn; translate Using VM plugIns result in more Interpreter-independent implementations of VM addons. If you want to, I can send the framework's code by mail. Or you can download sqAPI's code from SUGAR's miniatures page at: http://www.sugarWeb.com/Miniatures/DownLoad.html Ale. ---------- Desde: Andreas Raab[SMTP:raab@isgnw.cs.Uni-Magdeburg.DE] Enviado el: Jueves 9 de Abril de 1998 19:14 Para: squeak(a)cs.uiuc.edu Asunto: Interpreter Plugins Mike wrote: > I think we need to be very careful about adding too much bulk to the Squeak > environment. I want to be able to use it for handheld devices, It is interesting you mention this. I think this is closely related to what Tim called a _way_ too complicated and convoluted VM. So here is a suggestion: At the moment everything concerning primitives is kept in the interpreter itself (actually it's in both the Interpreter and the DynamicInterpreter). However, it is not easily possible to remove this since if you want to remove say the entire networking stuff, you'll have to do quite some modifications to the VM. And this, in turn, makes porting and adding new stuff much harder than it actually *should* be. Why don't we just take out stuff that is not needed to actually run squeak in some sort of plugins?! The only thing which would be needed is a well-defined interface to access, register and unregister from the VM. Than we could put a whole lot of stuff in separate classes (such as BitBlt) and keep the actual interpreter small. Even more, we could build customized VMs for certain application domains which might not include networking, sound, or even file support (if its running a bare chip system). Also, adding new stuff would be probably much easier - you would not have to modify the Interpreter but could just create a new plugin which can be translated into C code. Finally, a lot of duplicate work could be removed by the plugins because if each new Interpreter implementation implements the plugin interface it should run immediately. BTW, I think that the sqUserPrims.h file already gives a good impression about what is needed to access the Interpreter from such a plugin. Comments? Andreas -- Linear algebra is your friend - Trigonometry is your enemy. +===== Andreas Raab ============= (raab(a)isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de) =====+ I Department of Simulation and Graphics Phone: +49 391 671 8065 I I University of Magdeburg, Germany Fax: +49 391 671 1164 I +=============< http://isgwww.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/~raab >=============+

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Compiler bug
by TANGUAY, LUC 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

I though I had found a bug in Smalltalk Dolphin (sent a message to their support group) but I think there is a problem with Squeak. The following piece of code: ';' asSymbol == #; produces 'true' in Squeak and #; in Dolphin. The bug in Dolphin is not answering #; but the compiler should flag this code with an error. According to the Blue Book, #; is not a valid symbol constant. Another example. Now, according to ANSI, #';' is a valid string constant, so the code: ';' asSymbol == #';' in Dolphin gives 'true' but in Squeak, it is ' false'. Who's right? -- Luc Tanguay, ing. Bell Canada Recherche et génie logiciel/Software Engineering & Research 1050 Beaver Hall, 2e étage/2nd floor Montréal (Québec) H2Z 1S4, Canada Tél./phone: (514) 786-6440 mailto:Luc.Tanguay@bell.ca

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Re: Netscape mail filters
by Pat Caudill 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

>I know this is a little off topic, but here goes anyway. > >Ever since I joined this mailing list, the mail has been flooding my >mailbox. I've tried to filter it using Netscape mail filters, but it >doesn't seem to work because it registers the mail as being from the >individual person. Has anyone successfully been able to filter the >mail? I dont use Netscape but on two different mail readers I was able to segregate the mail for this mailing list by using - recipient contains "squeak' - Hope this helps. Pat Caudill

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Re: Compiler bug
by Tim Olson 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

>According to the Blue Book, #; is not a valid symbol constant. Yes; the current Squeak Scanner is a bit lax about accepting erroneous tokens following the hash. >Now, according to ANSI, #';' is a valid string constant, so ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ to clarify, ';' is a String constant, #';' is a hashed String constant which is a Symbol. >the code: > ';' asSymbol == #';' >in Dolphin gives 'true' but in Squeak, it is ' false'. >Who's right? Squeak currently treats a hashed String constant as the String constant, rather than it's associated Symbol. This should be fixed to bring it more in line with the ANSI requirements. Both of these changes are fairly easy, and can be done within Scanner>>xLitQuote: ---- 'From Squeak 1.31 of Feb 4, 1998 on 9 April 1998 at 1:22:23 pm'! !Scanner methodsFor: 'multi-character scans' stamp: 'tao 4/9/98 13:20'! xLitQuote "UniqueStrings and vectors: #(1 (4 5) 2 3) #ifTrue:ifFalse:. For ##x answer #x->nil. For ###x answer nil->#x." | start | self step. "litQuote" self scanToken. tokenType = #leftParenthesis ifTrue: [start _ mark. self scanToken; scanLitVec. tokenType == #doIt ifTrue: [mark _ start. self offEnd: 'Unmatched parenthesis']] ifFalse: [tokenType = #string ifTrue: [token _ token asSymbol] ifFalse: [(#(word keyword colon ) includes: tokenType) ifTrue: [self scanLitWord] ifFalse: [(tokenType==#literal) ifTrue: [(token isMemberOf: Association) ifTrue: "###word" [token _ nil->token key]. (token isMemberOf: Symbol) ifTrue: "##word" [token _ token->nil]] ifFalse: [^ self offEnd: 'selector, string, or array constant expected']]]]. tokenType _ #literal " #(Pen) #'Pen' #Pen ##Pen ###Pen "! ! -- tim

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SUGAR
by Leandro Caniglia 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

Squeakers. Let me make a somewhat unusual use of your list to announce a Spanish-spoken Smalltalk User Group in Argentina. The name of the group is SUGAR. Since one year ago we are maintaining an interest list at sugar(a)ccc.uba.ar and a Web site at http://sugarweb.com. People in this list that feel comfortable reading and writing in Spanish, are invited to participate. Currently the list has ~90 subscribers principally from Argentina. Also we are beginning to receive mails from people in Spain and some southamerican countries. To subscribe the list send a mail to majordomo(a)ccc.uba.ar with the text subscribe sugar in the message body (not the subject). Also, the administrators of Web sites from the Smalltalk community are encouraged to put a Link to http://sugarweb.com. Probably they will find specially interesting our pages about 'Miniatures'. Saludos, Leandro ------------------- Squeakers Permitanme que utilice su lista para anunciar un Grupo hispanoparlante de Usuarios de Smalltalk en Argentina. El nombre del grupo es SUGAR. Desde hace un a#o venimos manteniendo una lista de interes en sugar(a)ccc.uba.ar y un sitio de web en http://sugarweb.com. Las personas de esta lista que se sientan comodas leyendo y escribiendo en Espa#ol, estan invitadas a participar. Actulamente la lista tiene ~90 subscriptores principalmente de Argentina. Tambien estamos comenzando a recibir mails de personas en Espa#a y algunos paises sudamericanos. Para subscribirse a la lista envien un mail a majordomo(a)ccc.uba.ar con el texto subscribe sugar en el cuerpo del mensaje (no el el subject). Tambien instamos a los administradores de sitios de Internet de la comunidad Smalltalk a poner un link a http://sugarweb.com. Probablemente encuentren un interes especial en nuestas paginas sobre 'Miniaturas'. Saludos, Leandro

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Re: Squeak on a Chip
by Dan Ingalls 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

>>And if you saw the demo of Squeak running on the "bare-chip" Mitsubishi >>computer at OOPSLA, you know that we mean this! > >This sounds interesting -- for those of us that weren't there, can you >describe it a bit? Up on the Podium, we had a little board with about 6 chips and a PCMCIA ROM card on it. It had wires coming from a battery and going to a little 1/2 VGA color LCD display. The heart of the board was a Mitsubishi M32R/D chip which combines a RISC processor with 2MB of on-board RAM, all on one chip. The Mits folks (a research group in MountianView) had interfaced the Squeak API to their BIOS and *bingo* in a couple of weeks they had a Squeak computer. We booted the board and showed the screen by overhead camera, but we didn't actually have time to show much running. The board runs everything you would expect -- factorial, warpBlt, and even real-time music synthesis. - Dan

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Re: Squeak needs printing capabilities
by Mike Klein 09 Apr '98

09 Apr '98

I wrote: > Back in the (not so) old days, the quitPrimitive had a comment akin to: > > "Exit from the VM to the host OS, if there is one" > > These days, the "if there is one" has been taken out. > I suppose one of the Squeak Manifesto directives should be to > put this comment back in. And in the long tradition of flaming oneself: Mike, you idiot!!! You spend way to much time in VisualWorks!!! Squeak still says: (SystemDitionary >># quitPrimitive) "Exit to another operating system on the host machine, if one exists." But, I wholly agree with your sentiment. -- Mike

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