Squeak-dev April 1999

squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org

130 participants
319 discussions

RE: #(1) asFloatArray = 2
by Norton, Chris 02 Apr '99

02 Apr '99

It happens on Windows NT 4.0 too (version 2.3 + all recent updates); hard VM crash. ---==> Chris > -----Original Message----- > From: stan(a)stanheckman.com [SMTP:stan@stanheckman.com] > Sent: Friday, April 02, 1999 12:42 PM > To: squeak(a)cs.uiuc.edu > Subject: #(1) asFloatArray = 2 > > Comparing a FloatArray to a small integer segmentation faults, at > least with the 2.3 VM on Linux. For an example, evaluate the subject > line of this message. Save your image first. :-) > > -- > Stan

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#(1) asFloatArray = 2
by stan＠stanheckman.com 02 Apr '99

02 Apr '99

Comparing a FloatArray to a small integer segmentation faults, at least with the 2.3 VM on Linux. For an example, evaluate the subject line of this message. Save your image first. :-) -- Stan

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Re: Squeak and MP3 support? (& DVD too!)
by Andres Valloud 02 Apr '99

02 Apr '99

Hi. "Raab, Andreas" wrote: > > Uh, oh ... MP3 is patented (at least to some extent). > Those interested may look at > > http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/mp3.html > > which has a separate section on licensing/patents. >From a link there: > * The ISO source code is freely available, and no charge is asked for it, > as long as you do not compile it and do not distribute the binaries. What a joke. > * For the free distribution of decoders, they do not charge any royalty. So, Squeak can decode mp3 files for free and then no trouble. > * For the sold decoders, they ask a royalty of US $ 1,00. But as their > patent does not cover the decoding part, they cant ask it. Again no problem. > * For hardware decoders (like MP-Man), a royalty of US $ 2,00 is asked, > but they cant ask it neither. No problem with hardwired VMs in Squeak machines running on a DSP either. > * For software encoders, freely distributed or not, the royalties are > US $ 25 per encoder. The situation becomes here a little complicated. > If you write any encoder using the encoding scheme described in the patent > (this which is used in the ISO code), you must pay. You can try to write an > MP3 encoder without using this encoding scheme, so in this case you will > not have to pay, but its obvious that its nearly impossible. Opinion: this is outrageous. What if Knuth asked for royalties to the readers of his books?!?! > * If listeners have to pay for a song, they ask a fee of US $ 0,01 per song. > If the encoder used is cover by their patent, they can ask it. What a joke, again... Andres.

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RE: Squeak and MP3 support?
by Norton, Chris 02 Apr '99

02 Apr '99

> From: Duane Maxwell [SMTP:dmaxwell@launchpados.com] > > MP3 decoding is pretty compute-intensive and probably would not be a good > candidate for C translation, which violates the Squeak Portability > Commandment. Most, if not all, implementations use assembly to reduce the > CPU load to an acceptable level. However, there's some Open Source for > MP3 players at <http://www.freeamp.org> that could probably be wrapped in > a > platform independent primitive to decode an MP3 stream to a > Squeak-compatible sound buffer, if somebody wanted to take a stab at it > (Chris?). > [Norton, Chris] Hi Duane (& co.). Thanks for the suggestions and the URL; I'm sure you know better that I do about what would be required to make Squeak understand MP3 files. Actually, I am embarrassed to admit that I don't have the slightest idea how to compile Squeak for any platform, nor have I spent the time needed to understand the current Squeak Audio classes or the plug-in mechanism (I think Andreas Raab built my copy of Squeak 2.3 for Win 32). This kind of work is a bit beyond me at this point (I'm still a fledgling Squeaker - my wings a still wet!). I offered the suggestion to the Squeak list because I thought it might inspire someone else to pick up the baton, as it were. With all of the chatter about Squeak and PDA support, I thought: "Gee, the Rio(tm) MP3 player could probably be replaced by Squeak running on any ol' PDA". This might give the world another reason to be interested in Squeak! [My own Squeak projects have mostly been limited to the browser / tools / base class areas, as I do have some experience with other Smalltalk environments]. I'm afraid that I have more ideas than time to implement them! :-) Thanks again... ---==> Chris

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Squeak and MP3 support? (& DVD too!)
by Norton, Chris 02 Apr '99

02 Apr '99

Hi Folks. Although I am not much of a computer audio guy, I know that a number of you are, based on the discussions I have lurked over on this mailing list. However, I was watching the news the other day and I saw some interesting stuff about MP3, the new compressed audio format that all of the music companies are arguing over. There is a product(s?) that you can buy that lets you download and play these new files. It occurred to me that this whole concept could easily be embraced by Squeak. Squeak runs on everything, it has web accessing capabilities, and it already has significant audio and multi-media extensions. I wonder if you audio-philes are aware/interested in adding an MP3 extension to Squeak? ---==> Chris PS> For those of you who may not know what MP3 is, I looked it up on the web and this is the definition I found: "MPEG3 MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) is a method of compressing audio samples with minimal loss of quality, in fact compression of up to 12:1 is possible with no loss of quality. What this means is that a 3 minute song on a CD which would take up 30-40 Mb in normal .WAV format can be squashed down to 3-4Mb in Full 44khz Stereo. It will take about 15-20 minutes to download a file of this sizes, based on 28k Modem speed." [Quotation "borrowed" from: "Universal MP3 Links" at http://members.tripod.com/~ump3links/index.htm] PPS> On a related subject, has anyone looked into Squeak and DVD support? DVD (digital versatile disk, or digital video disk) promises to combine new compression techniques for both audio and video signals. Versions of DVD drives are already shipping with new PCs in the US. Combining the ability to decode and play DVD signals in Squeak with the exciting concept of running Squeak on a web page, could provide for a new, exciting kind of multi-media web page.... The future is getting brighter!

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T-Gen and/or XML?
by "Gran" Hultgren 01 Apr '99

01 Apr '99

Hi all! Just curious - has anybody ported T-Gen to Squeak yet? I thought I saw something about that some time ago. Or has anyone built an XML parser in Squeak? I know that Scamper has HTML parsing stuff in it. regards, Gran === Gran Hultgren, gohu(a)rocketmail.com, icq#:6136722 GSM: +46 709 472152, http://195.22.65.4 "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Than they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: 22 new updates
by agree＠carltonfields.com 01 Apr '99

01 Apr '99

I don't know if this is a radical change in the semantics per se, but certainly the status quo ante was not inconsistent or incoherent and did not obviously require a change as I saw it. By having non-indexed objects share the trait with indexed objects of 0 size of responding the same way to each of these operations: object size 0 object at: anyIndex error object replaceFrom: 0 (or copyFrom:to: for strings) to: -1 with: anyObject startingAt: 1 Doesn't seem to lead to any singularities in semantics, and has some nice properties of making certain typechecking unnecessary in practice. The downside, of course, is that errors in reasoning may not be caught unless there *is* an error. One possible singularity is that SmallIntegers do not continuously scale from their indexable Large Integer counterparts. (A two-chunk SmallInteger arguably should have a non-zero size, and perhaps even respond to at: in a manner that would be logically consistent with LargeIntegers that might represent the small numbers). For example: 10000000000000 size is 6, and (10000000000000 / 1000) size is 5, but (10000000000000 / 10000) size is 0! Is it the latter issue, or some subtle performance issue that is driving this change? -----Original Message----- From: MIME :duane@cmu.edu Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 1999 11:16 AM To: squeak(a)cs.uiuc.edu Subject: Re: 22 new updates >>At 7:29 Uhr -0800 30.03.1999, Dan Ingalls wrote: >>> 123 size no longer responds with 0. >>> nil size no longer responds with 0. That seems like a radical change in the semantics. Size seems to be everywhere defined to be the number of indexable variables in the receiver; so 0 seems like that right answer for objects that have no indexable variables. << File: ENVELOPE.TXT >>

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ThingLab warning
by Ted K. 01 Apr '99

01 Apr '99

Folks, If you are using the ThingLab goodie, please be aware of some problems. When it is in the system, object filing (SmartRefStream) will not work. Players and Viewers on Players may not work either (gotten by painting a new object). ThingLab redefines the 'name' message in class Object. I have sent a fix for ThingLab to Reiner van Loon. --Ted. Ted Kaehler, Walt Disney Imagineering, R&D (home) 3415 Cork Oak Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303. voice (650) 424-1070 http://www.webPage.com/~kaehler2/ Remember, we are the lowest form of intelligence that can do this sort of thing.

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[BUG] size error in scamper
by mdr＠scn.org 01 Apr '99

01 Apr '99

The size update caused Scamper to break because of what I suspect is a actal bug. linePositions _ linePositions, selections size. This line is doing a concatenation of a collection and an integer, which fails when it asks the size of the integer. I am not sure of what it actually did before the update -- I suspect the concatenation took the size of the integer, got zero, and so appended nothing. Sorry no to fix this right now, but my network connection is really slow and I really want to take advantage of the glorious sunshine. Mike mdr(a)scn.org _______ Scamper menu: menu shifted: shifted | lines selections linePositions | lines _ 'new URL history view source inspect parse tree go to start page edit start page'. linePositions _ #(2 4). selections _ #(jumpToNewUrl displayHistory viewSource inspectParseTree visitStartPage editStartPage ). downloadingProcess ifNotNil: [ lines _ lines, String cr, 'stop downloading'. linePositions _ linePositions, selections size. "THE LINE" selections _ selections, #(stopEverything) ]. menu labels: lines lines: linePositions selections: selections. ^menu.

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