Squeak-dev September 2003

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163 participants
651 discussions

Re: Debugger woes
by Anthony Hannan 02 Sep '03

02 Sep '03

Hi Andreas (and thanks Doug for forwarding this to me. For some reason I did not get this mail although I've been getting other mailing list posts), Andreas Raab wrote: > I'm having some serious trouble with some of the recent changes to > debugging Squeak processes. One of the things that we absolutely > needed in Croquet includes a faithful process debugging ability, e.g., > a way to debug expressions like "Processor activeProcess" and friends. > I've recently hacked up a pretty good first-order approximation for > this in Croquet and while looking at 3.6 (in order to port this forward) > I ran into great trouble. > > What's the deal? It is essentially that the operations for context > simulations are intertwined with the "regular" operations on > processes. All the simulation behavior is in the 'changing suspended state' protocol in Process. So it is not too intertwinded. Maybe it would be better to rename this 'simulation'. > My little hack was based upon running the context simulation itself from > the process we're debugging (by inserting the context simulation into the > process and simulate from there) which cannot work if the simulation > modifies the process itself (which it does in 3.6). You have to modify the process because you are executing it even if its one step at a time. > While some arguments > (in terms of code reuse) can be made for inserting much of the simulation > facilities into class Process itself it seems to me that we really > need a separation between "running" a process and "simulating" its > execution. Simulating a process IS running a process. It is just that Smalltalk code (in 'changing suspended state') is updating the process and context state instead of the VM. Although to speed things up the simulate code in #complete: hands off execution to the VM until a specified context completes than the simulation takes over again (old #quickStep). We could add a preference here to do it all in simulation (slowly) if desired. An implementation issue with the fast #complete is that instead of resuming the suspended process (the process being debugged) to get the VM to run it, the UI process (the process executing the suspended process) swaps suspendedContexts with the suspended process, so it just continues executing in the VM but really is executing the suspended processes stack. This is tricky. I would like to switch it so it just resumes the suspended process, while the UI process waits. > I've long thought that the debugger (model) really ought to be a tool > which establishes the means for simulating a process "from the outside" > rather than being tied to the UI controlling it. Looking at the changes in > 3.6 it almost feels as if there is a similar intent in the changes done, > except that what I think is a debugger responsility has been moved inside > class Process itself (e.g., methods like #completeStep: etc). Naturally, this > leads to big trouble if any of the assumptions about what is called by the > debugger and what is called by the regular execution machinery goes > wrong. I agree. What you call the non-UI debugger, I call the simulator. In my VI4 implementation I did have a Simulator. But when trying to adapt my changes to the current Squeak I tried not to change too much (my mistake). So your right, it would be better to have all the 'changing suspended state' code in a separate "Simulator" class (and not in ContextPart because we are manipulating the whole execution stack (process), not a single context). > So here's my question: Has anyone ever seen a good model for separating > the three aspects of a) running a process (e.g., what should be in class > Process), b) simulating it (e.g., what should be in a debugger that has > no UI responsibilities at all), and c) providing the interface to the UI (e.g., > what we have today in class Debugger)? Yes just move the 'changing suspended state' code to a new Simulator class and have the debugger interact with it. > I'd be willing to give this a shot since we _really_ need this (I don't > think we can move Croquet forward to 3.6 without it) and I think it'd > be valuable for other applications as well. Any pointers, ideas, thoughts, > comments are welcome. Moving the simulation code out into a simulator, is just an organization (asthetics) issue. The simulator is there, just in Process 'changing suspended state'. So this should not hold you back. The fast #complete: is probably the real problem your running into. It would be cleaner to to resume the suspended process directly instead of swapping contexts (see #jump). Also, you probably want the option to disable the fast #complete: all together and simulate the entire call. Let me know if you want to make this change to #complete:. Or if you want me too. Cheers, Anthony

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[Q] How do I reclaim memory used by MethodContexts?
by Chris Muller 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

I have a program that references Blocks from instance variables, and passes Blocks as arguments to methods. When my program ends, I notice that objects that were referenced in variables used inside my code Block are still referenced by its MethodContext. I think this is what's preventing them from being garbage collected. I've never had this problem before, what can I do? Thanks.. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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[Q] Buoyancy project doesn't work
by diegogomezdeck＠consultar.com 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Hi... I tried to load Buoyancy (http://209.143.91.36/super.221) in a 3.5 image without sucess. The error says that BouyancyAtom class is not present. Anyone know where I can get a running version? TIA, Diego

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Finding and indexing 'similar' string
by David Faught 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Julian Fitzell wrote: >Jim Menard wrote: >> It works for any words because it is based on how they sound. I >> have read about one problem with the algorithm, though: you need >> different sets of characters and weightings for different >> languages. For example, I think you would want "j" and "h" to map >> to the same sound in Mexican Spanish. (Forgive me if that's a bad >> example. The only Spanish I've ever learned was "May I have another >> beer, please?" and "Where is the bathroom?") >The other problem with it, as I recall, is that you the first letter >needs to be the same. So a name/word that starts with 'ph' won't >ever match a word that starts with 'f', for example, even if they >sound the same. Other than that, though, it works great: we used it >for a sales system and it allowed users to stop asking people to >spell their names over the phone. I've tried typing in every >convoluted spelling of my name I can think of and it always finds >me :) There is also the metaphone algorithm, which may or may not have these same problems: http://aspell.sourceforge.net/metaphone/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com

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Re: [UPDATES] 9 for 3.6beta
by Bruce ONeel 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Hi, These updates are in: ftp://st.cs.uiuc.edu/pub/Smalltalk/Squeak/3.6beta/Squeak3.6b-5411.zip I'll note that st.cs.uiuc.edu seems to have a very slow connection today. cheers bruce Doug Way <dway(a)riskmetrics.com> wrote: > > The latest approved fixes for 3.6beta. There will be one last round of > fixes in a few days, then it's on to 3.6gamma & 3.7alpha. > > - Doug > > > ---------------- > > 5403MVCDebuggerFix-ajh -- Anthony Hannan -- 6 August 2003 > Forked process that opens the debugger needed to > searchForActiveController before terminating" > > 5404EditorEscFix-bg -- Boris Gaertner -- 1 June 2003 > When you press the Esc button in an MVC workspace, you get a walkback > 'offerMenuFromEsc: not understand'. In Morphic, the context menu is > offered when the Esc button is presssed. This change set adds the same > feature for MVC. " > > 5405KCP98SystemNavFix -- stephane and daniel -- 23 August 2003 > Move all implementations of systemNavigation into > Object>*system-support" > > 5406KCP99SingletonSysNav -- Stef and Daniel -- 23 August 2003 > Introduce a singleton for SystemNavigation > Change Object>>systemNavigation to use it." > > 5407KCP100FixSingletonRefs -- Stef and Daniel -- 23 August 2003 > Fix all the references to SystemNavigation new to use the > Object>>systemNavigation" > > 5408KCP101ReintroduceDepr -- Stef and Daniel -- 23 August 2003 > reintroduce nicely the methods #allCallsOn:, > #allUnsentMessages, and #allUnreferencedClassVariables in > ClassDescription. > Note that the following methods are not reintroduced as they are > dealing with UI stuff. > #browseAllAccessTo: > #browseAllCallsOn: > #browseAllStoresInto: > > 5409FFICleanup -- Adam Spitz -- 25 August 2003 > Just recategorizes a bunch of ByteArray methods, so that FFI will be a > nice well-behaved PackageInfo package (more or less)." > ByteArray organization renameCategory: 'external access' toBe: '*FFI'. > ByteArray organization classifyAll: { #asExternalPointer } under: > '*FFI'. > > 5410IntlChars-ar-dgd -- Andreas Raab -- 24 August 2003 > Enable the use of international characters such as Umlauts. > Most of the work done by Andreas. Some small fixes by Diego Gomez Deck > Diego's work: > - call to String initialize in the postscript. > - some small fixes in Character class>>initializeClassificationTable > for Spanish letters > These pairs of upper/lower letters need checking from > non-spanish/non-german/non-english speakers. > ($È $è) ($Ì $ì) ($Ò $ò) ($Ù $ù) > ($Ë $ë) ($Ï $ï) > ($Â $â) ($Ê $ê) ($Î $î) ($Ô $ô) ($Û $û) > WARNING: Change set has been manually re-arranged. > Take care when trying to file it out again. The definition of > Character class>>initialize, Character > class>>initializeClassificationTable and an evaluation of 'Character > initialize' have to be the first steps after the Character class > redefinition. > > 5411FCB-browseSenders-bkv -- Brent Vukmer <brentvukmer(a)yahoo.com> -- 14 > August 2003 > This fixes the browse-senders function in the FileContentsBrowser by > removing an unnecessary 'new'. > I'm puzzled, though; why do 9 different classes implement > #systemNavigation, since all 9 use the same implementation?"

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Squeaklets
by Vincent Foley 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

I was wondering, can I take a simple morphic application and make it a Squeaklet like we see on the SqueakLand website? -- Vincent Foley-Bourgon Email: vinfoley(a)iquebec.com Homepage: http://darkhost.mine.nu:81

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Re: Dynabook Usability
by Gary McGovern 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

I think I have to go with Doug and Stephen's idea of wireless pages that are detachable from a book (and my idea). Multi-views simultaneously. Doug's idea of cards spread out struck me right away but it took a while for it sink in fully. Thanks! Gary >Jecel Assumpcao Jr wrote: > >>On Thursday 28 August 2003 13:54, Doug Way wrote: >> >> >>>Speaking of hardware innovations, though, one idea I've thought would >>>be interesting: If you had a truly flexible screen technology, you >>>could have a dynabook with the form factor of a scroll. When rolled >>>up, you'd have a very portable (say) 6" long stick, which you could >>>then unroll into a 12"x6" screen. It could have a little brace which >>>unfolds to hold the screen in place. I'd think that a flexible, >>>rollable screen technology will be available before a screen which >>>can be perfectly folded with no gaps. I suppose this is more >>>interesting from a portability perspective than a usability >>>perspective, though. >>> >>> >> >>Check out the TV series "Earth: Final Conflict" or the movie "Red >>Planet" for very nice visualizations of your idea. >> >>http://members.aol.com/nokomiss/Palmcorder.gif >> >>I would prefer it if the scroll were slightly conical, so when you >>unroll it you would get something similar to the attached picture. >> >>-- Jecel >> > >If these flexible displays had wireless capability, then they wouldn't >need to be physically attached to the computer. I could imagine that in >your home, you'd have a number of 8.5 x 11 displays that you could >spread out on a desktop, or hang on a wall. You could also throw a few >in a folder or your luggage to carry with you. Displays of a smaller >dimension could roll up into a cylinder for even more portability. > >- Stephen > > >

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Fonts in Squeak
by tschwarzkopf＠t-online.de 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Hello, I'd like to use Squeak to learn Smalltalk. This is probably not a good idea but since Squeak runs on some exotic platforms I am interested in I'll try it anyway ;-) I installed Squeak 3.5 on my FreeBSD box. Squeak seems to run ok but the default fonts look very ugly. It's hard to read them. I don't know if this is a FreeBSD or Unix/X11 specific problem or if Squeak always looks like that. I googled a bit to find information on how to get better fonts for Squeak but the information I found was quite confusing. There seem to be different projects in various stages of development for different versions of Squeak on different operating systems to make it possible to use Truetype fonts or Freetype fonts. So my question is, what is the recommended way to install better fonts for Squeak 3.5 on my platform? Truetype and Freetype fonts are already installed on my system and they work very well with all other applications. Thanks Thomas

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RE: [BUG]TMethod(Object)>>error:
by Andreas Raab 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

Hi, > I wanted to generate a vm with unix-Squeak-3.6-beta7 sources, but the > step "Adding Class Interpreter" does not work > > 31 August 2003 1:28:07 am > > VM: unix - Squeak3.6beta of '4 July 2003' [latest update: #5373] > Image: Squeak3.5alpha [latest update: #5169] Given that the above claims that you are using a 3.5 based image it all looks as if you've tried to load the latest (3.6) based VMMaker package on top of a 3.5 based image. This will not work correctly. It all looks like you have "left-over" methods in class Interpreter (like #returnValue:to:) which were removed in the meantime. Cheers, - Andreas

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[BUG] SMLoader not handling download errors (critical for 3.6full)
by Bert Freudenberg 01 Sep '03

01 Sep '03

While upgrading to the full 3.6 release: Error: error occured retrieving http://www.ira.uka.de/~marcus/System-Benchmarking.st: Server www.ira.uka.de is not responding Of course, this can happen. But the error should be caught and this package should simply be skipped, perhaps with a notice afterwards ("loading package ... failed, try again later by doing ..."). IMHO this is a critical error, as it will severely confuse someone who tries to get a full image (who likely is no hard-core squeaker). -- Bert

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