Squeak-dev November 2002

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RE: A big teacher wish
by Magistrello Alejandro (SFA) 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

the attached method returns Richards comments <<Class class-templateForSubclassOfcategory.st>> regards, Alejandro

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[Update] Faure 0.3 (Play release)
by Russell Allen 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

Hi again, I was inspired to detour from my aim to make a fully functional addressbook/calendar/todo list type system to add some extra fun stuff to Faure. Release 0.3 contains: - a working scribble pad, in full colour with adjustable brush sizes - a working piano with a choice of Clarinet, Flute, Organ, Brass and Plucked Electric Bass sounds - a 3D Demo app showing the awesome power of the iPaq! (ok, it's a little slow...) - a shrunk version of the SameGame and, most importantly, - a clock on the front page :) Code and precooked image at http://russell-allen.com/squeak/faure/ Cheers, Russell

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Re: A big teacher wish
by Richard A. O'Keefe 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

Roel Wuyts <roel.wuyts(a)iam.unibe.ch> wrote: I like the idea, but not these names, they are way to generic. Exactly so. Especially the 'knows' is really too much, and it is also a form of sharing (it just has a different scope). So maybe something like this? >> Morph >> subclass: #MyMorph >> has: ' myTarget lastTime ' >> instancesShare: ' CloseBoxImage ' >> poolsShare: ' Colors ' >> category: 'Morphic-Samples'! For me, 'has' is a relation between objects (THIS ordered collection _has_ THIS array as one of its parts) or a relation between classes (AN INSTANCE OF OrderedCollection _has_ AN INSTANCE OF Array). 'has' is not just "way too generic", it suggests the wrong thing. The most salient thing about #myTarget and #lastTime is that they are VARIABLE NAMES. What on earth is wrong with using the word 'variable' here? The next most salient thing about these things is what their LIFETIME is. Their lifetime is the lifetime of an instance. So the most intention revealing name here is something that says 'variable with lifetime of instance', possibly in fewer words. I know, we could say 'instanceVariables:' and that would convey the meaning concisely and accurately. It doesn't matter if it's a bit long because nobody ever types it. Now let's look at 'instancesShare'. Let's find an example of instances sharing something. x := 'boojum' copy. y := Array with: x. z := Array with: x. Now we have two instances (y, z) of Array sharing something. What they share is a String. Object sharing is FAR too important a concept in OO to abuse the word to refer to the scope of variable names. What's the most important thing about 'CloseBoxImage' here? The fact that it names a variable. What's the second most important thing about it? The fact that it has the same lifetime as the class. A good intention-revealing name would be something along the lines of 'variable with lifetime of class', possibly in fewer words. I know, we could use 'classVariables:' and that would convey the meaning concisely and accurately. It doesn't matter if it's a bit long because nobody ever types it. Now let's look at 'poolsShare'. Well, it's just plain WRONG. 'Colors' is not the name of something that some pools share', it is the name of a pool. It would have to be 'poolsShared'. However, what's a pool? Especially for beginners, you need a bit of help here. A pool is a Dictionary, so we need a name something along the lines of 'dictionary of infinite extent variables whose scope may be shared with other not hierarchically related classes'. Since the things named aren't variables but dictionaries, we want something that says "xxxDictionaries:". Anyone who knows/remembers Fortran would appreciate my preference, 'commonDictionaries:'. "Pool" is the least obvious part of the name, so why retain the one bit that _isn't_ very helpful and jettison the part that _is_ helpful? 'instanceVariables:' and 'classVariables:' are well-nigh perfect intention-revealing names, once you grasp that the important distinction is not whether they are "shared" or not (ALL Smalltalk variables can be "shared" in _some_ sense) but what their lifetime is. Remember that NOBODY types these names in by hand. Smalltalk makes the template for you, and you just fill in the different bits. Instead of messing about with the names (and thereby greatly diminishing the utility of those wonderful free Smalltalk books), if anyone is seriously bothered about whether beginners understand these words or not, they could do something REALLY practical and potentially useful: MAKE Class class>>templateForSubclassOf:category: GENERATE A TEMPLATE THAT CONTAINS HELPFUL COMMENTS. So instead of seeing Object subclass: #NameOfSubclass" instanceVariableNames: '' classVariableNames: ;; poolDictionaries: '' category: 'Collections-Text' a beginner would see "Edit this template to create a new class." Object subclass: #NameOfSubclass" instanceVariableNames: '' classVariableNames: ;; poolDictionaries: '' category: 'Collections-Text' "Change Object to the name of the existing parent class. Change NameOfSubclass to the name you want the new child class to have. Do not remove the # sign, it is important. Instance variables are variables that live inside objects; when an instance is made, the variable comes into existence; when an instance disappears, the variable disappears. To declare such variables, put their names, separated by spaces, inside the string after instanceVariableNames:. Class variables are variables associated with classes rather than instances; when a class is created or loaded, they come into existence, when the class is destroyed they go out of existence, and they keep their values no matter how many instances there are. To declare class variables, put their names, separated by spaces, inside the string after classVariableNames:. Pool dictionaries are an advanced feature you don't need to use, so leave that line untouched." I'm not picky about the wording. It should certainly be localised. Basically, there is NO perfect set of words you can use here which will be instantly obvious to all people. ESPECIALLY if you change the words so that they can't use any existing book! Generating some kind of helpful comment, even if it's just "Click on this link for a tutorial about creating classes." has got to be FAR more helpful.

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RE: [BUG] walking confirm popups
by Jeff Sparkes 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

> What about this solution (using a preference and the code > from: PopUpMenu>>startUpCenteredWithCaption:) > That's great, thanks. Anybody know why the default is the way it is? It's probably to make the user really look at the choice. Is this the way a "modern" UI should work? I wonder if it's worth it to put the cursor over the anticipated choice to make those lazy users happy.

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Is this right?
by Markus Fritsche 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

It's me! Is this correct: Socktet>>primSocket:receiveDataInto:startingAt:count: "Receive data from the given socket into the given array starting at the given index. Return the number of bytes read or zero if no data is available." Socket>>getData ... bytesRead _ self primSocket: socketHandle receiveDataInto: buf startingAt: 1 count: buf size. ^ buf copyFrom: 1 to: (bytesRead max: 0) I'm curios when the first one returns something < 0? On error? Regards, Markus -- http://reauktion.de/archer/

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[ANN] *Proper* Squeak Server Pages, Directory Listings, Comanche
by Brent Pinkney 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

Good People, I have had a stab at providing Comanche proper Squeak Server Page support (ie. embbedded <% ... %> tags in a text file). I have borrowed gratuitiously from STT and the existing SSP stuff. I shamelessly use the SSP term becuase I need it for my prototyping - it is nice and similar to ASP,JSP,PHP. Features: 1. Arbitrary Smalltalk code is embedded in <% ... %> tags. 2. The #printString result of some embedded code can be embedded in <%= ... %> tags. 3. Other files can be included using the <%include: filename %> tag. 4. Local variables can be decalred and refernced by subsequent tags. See issues. 5. Psuedo variable self is the Comanche HttpRequest and can be referenced. Examples... 1. <html> Collecting garbage.. <% Smalltalk garbage collect. %> <br> done. </html> 2. <html> <h1> The time is: <%= Time now %> </html> 3. <html> <%include 'banner.ssp' %> </html> 4. <html> <% f _ [ :n | n factorial ] %> 5 Factorial is: <h4> <%= f value: 5 %> </h4> </html> 4. <html> URL is <h4> <%= self url %> </h4> </html> Changes are made to Squeak3.2-4956 and Comanche 4.10. It is implemented as a Comanche module DynamicFileModule which extends the exising StaticFileModule. Also included is a Comanche module DirectoryListingModule which returns an HTML representation of a directory. Some minor changes were made to Comanche 4.10 to make is aesthetic. Introduce DirectoryEntry>>#description. The relevent class descriptions have been documented. See ChieftainModule class>>#basicExample for how to configure such a web server. Cheers Brent __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

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[ENH] Keyboad navigation for SimpleHierarchicalListMorph
by Thierry Reignier 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

Hi, I have added support for - incrementation navigation (arrows up down left right) - jump navigation (letters) - expansion + collapsing with (ctrl or alt) and (cr or arrows left or right) Also made first item being selected by default. Tried with CategoricalSMLoader + ObjectExplorer and it works nicely. Done in 3.2 and 3.4 Thierry _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Socket questions
by Markus Fritsche 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

Hello, when I use Socket>>getData to fetch my data from a socket, getData returns on a crlf (right?). Is there a way to get the data, say, byte-for-byte? Thanks, Markus -- http://reauktion.de/archer/

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Why is YAXO in the stream?
by Stephen Pair 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

I just rolled an image to 3.4a and noticed that YAXO is now in the stream...why? Aren't we trying to make things more modular and move away from the kitchen sink image approach? This would seem to work against that direction. Why not start a SqC Squeak distribution that has its own set of packages pre-loaded and keep the contents of update stream to a minimum? (in fact, maybe we should make a rule that change sets in the update stream should yield a net reduction of the code base in the base squeak image)...ok, I'm exaggerating a bit here, but is the idea valid? I imagine if you started packaging things like YAXO into SARs (with a change set and DVS package), then you could quickly qet to an automated build process where you take a fully up to date image and load the various packages for the SqC distribution...and perhaps do it nightly. The only issue then is versioning the packages (which I think we could use my VersionNumber (http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/2511) stuff to give package file names a version number...this could be optional with DVS if you want to use a version naming conventiong instead of CVS...it would allow you to handle the case where two people concurrently work on version 1 of a package and both try to file out their changes (the first one to file out would be "packageXYZ-2.st" and the second would be "packageXYZ-1.1.st"). Merge tools could be added at a later date. VersionNumber and VersionHistory would allow a build script to say "give me the latest mainline version of packageXYZ" (VersionHistory can be inferred from a simple directory listing of everything matching "packageXYZ-*.st"). You then just ask your VersionHistory instance for the latest mainline version. So, I see 3 simple additions to DVS that might be useful... a) allow a change set to be added as a preload to a package (for changes to external packages to be separated from things that actually belong in the package) b) have DVS use the SAR format for externalizing packages (so that the change set and *.st file can be maintained together) c) have DVS incorporate VersionNumber (and show the version number in the package browser) as an optional way of naming packages and thus keeping version history A nightly build script could then simply say: take the latest image, load the latest versions of packages A, B, and C, load and execute SUnit packages, and if everything looks good, save the image to an ftp download site. - Stephen

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[BUG] walking confirm popups
by Jeff Sparkes 28 Nov '02

28 Nov '02

When you call HostFont>>initWin32 from the win32 native fonts more than once, it popups up a yes/no confirmation dialog to process each font. Each of these pops up slightly the right of the mouse cursor, so I have to move the mouse slightly to select the yes (or no) option. Each subsequent one is slight to the right of the mouse cursor again. This is annoying, and an ergonomic nightmare. I think the place to change is PopupMenu>>startupWithCaption: I don't know exactly what to put there or if changes are required anywhere else. Anybody want to tackle this?

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