Squeak-dev February 2008

squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org

159 participants
219 discussions

Monticello and Branches
by Steven W Riggins 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

I have spoken to Avi a little bit about this, but I need some help. Sophie has tons of packages, 20+, plus all of the tweak and squeak packages. I need a way where I can take the current state of a config map and branch it. Really branch it, so any checkins on the branch are CLEARLY going into the branch only. Avi mentioned using new packages, but quite frankly that seems very error prone and cumbersome, especially when you're not exactly sure what to do. In svn, I simply copy my current tree to a new 'directory' and I'm done. I can switch between the branches easily. We're getting bitten doing real, crunch time development where I can't just easily branch off the current state of our project as "1.0b10" and then build, without others checking in code while I am doing this, or, working on the branch for 3 days to get it stable while others work on the trunk. This is very important, so if any of you have solutions for now to use MC like I use svn, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! Steve

3 3

Events in HydraVM
by Igor Stasenko 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

John M McIntosh asked me to make some overview on HydraVM internals - events subsystem. So, here it is. :) An event in HydraVM can be represented by any abstract structure, and having only two mandatory fields: typedef struct vmEvent { struct vmEvent * volatile next; eventFnPtr fn; } vmEvent; The first field - next, used to be able to put events into queue, the second one is the function pointer of form: typedef sqInt (*eventFnPtr)(struct Interpreter*, struct vmEvent*); Any additional event payload can be implementation specific. For instance, for channels i generating events which consisting of information of destination channel + data buffer. So, event holds everything in itself. Each Interpreter instance having own event queue. Event queue implementation belongs to 3 platform specific functions: void ioInitEventQueue(struct vmEventQueue * queue); void ioEnqueueEventInto(struct vmEvent * event , struct vmEventQueue * queue); struct vmEvent * ioDequeueEventFrom(struct vmEventQueue * queue); The requirements of enqueue/dequeue functions implementation is simple: they should be atomic. On windows i'm using InterlockedCompareExchange(), and on other platforms, based on x86 architecture an equivalent is 'lock cmpxchg' asm instruction. To support other architectures, which may don't have atomic CAS (compare and store) instructions, there can be a need in changing vmEventQueue struct, to keep additional information, like mutex handle, to ensure that enqueue/dequeue operations are thread safe. If you still didn't catch how events working, here is some additional information: - since events are thread safe, you can generate an event from any native thread, and don't need to take any additional steps for synchronizing with VM/Interpreter instance. This, in particular, used in SocketPlugin to signal semaphores when socket (which served by separate native thread) changes it's state. About event handling function: this is the function which will be called when interpreter will interrupt for handling events, so in this function you have synchronized access to object memory, interpreter state e.t.c. and don't have to worry about concurrency. Also, function along with event payload are very convenient for determining context and what event means and what it will do. Instead of making dozens of event types, enumerating them.. then writing a case statements, it's doing a simple dispatch event->fn(interpreter, event); so, system are flexible and can handle events of any kind doing anything you want. As for example, suppose you wanna write a plugin which needs to post events to interpreter, but with your own, custom handling code, and with your event payload. So, declare an event in form: struct myEvent { struct vmEvent header; int myField1; int myField2; .. }; Now to post event we simply can do: myEvent * event = malloc(sizeof(myEvent)); event->header->fn = myHandler; event->myField1 = ... .... Now, a handler function: sqInt myHandler(struct Interpreter * intr, myEvent * evt) { ... do something nasty here, knowing that you can't be trapped by concurrency issues :).. free(evt); // release memory, allocated for event } -- Best regards, Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

2 3

InkMedia mini-laptop ARM11 machine
by tim Rowledge 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Stumbled across this little OLPC-ish machine this afternoon. Linux, ARM1136, 256Mb ram etc. Apparently ~$300 http://ink-media.com/index.html Should be a nice little cheap, light Squeak machine. tim -- tim Rowledge; tim(a)rowledge.org; http://www.rowledge.org/tim Strange OpCodes: CLOUT: Call Long-distance On Unused Telephone

5 4

[MC] Best practice for multi-package diffs?
by Andreas Raab 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Hi - We have plenty of MC packages in our product builds (approx. 100) and one of the most difficult tasks can be to figure out what has changed between two builds. Is there any good solution for this problem which doesn't involve going through the packages by hand? (I will note that we have configurations for the builds so we do know which versions are in which build). What do others do to figure out what has changed? Cheers, - Andreas

2 1

Best practice(s) to delete an object?
by itsme213 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

I have this object, X, I want to delete (typically from within the context of some other object Y). So I remove it from Y (set some Y instVar to nil, or remove it from some collection instVar of Y). I mark X 'deleted'. Now I have to make sure that no other objects retain any (effective) reference to X. What are some best practices for doing this? My current thought: 1. Every accessor of every instVAr for all relevant objects can do a check-and-clean before returning a value. AnyClass>>aSingleObjAccessor singleInstVar isDeleted ifTrue: [singleInstVar := nil]. ^ singleInstVar AnyClass>>aCollectionAccessor collInstVar removeIf: [:x | x isDeleted]. ^collInstVar 2. Perhaps I should also use weak-refs to X wherever possible, so X could be GC'd before all its incoming refs are check-and-cleaned? How does one actually do this? I suspect I am missing far more elegant solutions. All pointers :-) appreciated. Thanks - Sophie

6 9

My answers to election's 10 questions.
by Igor Stasenko 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

> 1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak > during the coming year (in any kind of unit)? It's hard to say. Currently i'm spending all my time on Squeak. Things may change, of course. But i think, at least 2 hours per day i'll spend on Squeak in any case. > 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not > necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year? Besides licensing. We should think about making community more organized, in terms of better communication and cooperation. > 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected money > should be dealt with? A money donated to SqF should serve for the community benefit. I think, it would be good to make addressed help to developers of most awaited products or most awaited enhancements. A community by own can decide which project should receive a grant: we can set-up a monthly survey, and community members can give own voice for the project they think need some monetary support. In that way, SqF can help with raising peoples motivation. > 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making SqueakFoundation > a not-for-profit legal entity? I think it's a right choice to become a legal entity. This will add more weight to foundation itself and to community. I see a SqueakFoundation as well respected and well known entity which serves in best interests of squeak community: helping members and protecting their rights. > 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organising our > efforts or should we come up with something else? Team, is a group of enthusiasts which joining efforts on some task. Since all of them are volunteers, and since people's interests may change very fast (in a couple of months), it's really hard to push task to finish line with same team as it was started. Also, most of us don't like to be ashamed being known as someone who started something and never finished it. In general, team model is good, but we need some people spending time to oversee project activities and provide help in case if it's being stuck. Also, addressed help may be an option to motivate people join team(s). > 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the > Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite > communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc), also > referred to as "stakeholder communities"? Obviously, we should collaborate and exchange ideas and common improvements. The main problem which standing before fruitful exchange, is the lack of tools and lack of modularity. So, the primary goal of the board in next years, should be to make these tools available, which should help a lot in sharing code between communities. > 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you see > it evolving over the next few years? In order of priority: - make it modular. - make it more appeal for newcomers (by improving GUI). - make it more appeal for business applications (by improving GIU/dev tools and related). > 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort? I think it should be finished as soon as possible, to not constrain us anymore. > 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source world > in year 2012? As a modern platform for creating applications, authoring and modeling. And as best platform for experimenting and inventing. > 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board? Organizational, promotional, helpful to community. -- Best regards, Igor Stasenko AKA sig.

2 3

[Election 2008] Q&A updated, three notes!
by goran＠krampe.se 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi all! I just updated the Q&A wiki page with hopefully all answers posted until now. Note that I do not collect followup clarifications/answers posted in the discussion threads. http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/6029 Three notes: 1. Ok, since some have answered the 11th question - I included it too in the Q&A. 2. Regarding question 5 - I want to stress that the question is referring to the *specific* Team model that we use and not just "working in teams in general". I suspect some candidates may be missing that point. I again refer to the definition of the team model being in use today: http://www.squeak.org/Community/Teams (see bottom half of that page!) 3. No candidates have posted articles on SqP presenting themselves. We have quite little time until the election starts. I am currently not expecting these articles to materialize in time but I do hope we instead see all candidates answering the Q&A. :) regards, Göran

1 0

C5 videos online
by Serge Stinckwich 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi all, the videos of the last C5 conference at Poitiers are now online. I put links to the Squeak related presentations on my blog here : http://doesnotunderstand.free.fr/?p=480 Have fun, -- Serge Stinckwich http://doesnotunderstand.free.fr/

2 1

Bob's superswiki is down.
by Jerome Peace 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi all, It has been a couple of days since I was able to connect to Bob's superswiki. Anyone know what's happening? http://209.143.91.36/super/ Yours in curiosity and service, --Jerome Peace ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

1 0

Election 2008: Your Questions, My Answers
by merlyn＠stonehenge.com 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

1. Approximately, how much time do you plan on spending on Squeak during the coming year (in any kind of unit)? My company is concentrating this year on building a presence in the Smalltalk world, mostly through the promotion of cross-platform web frameworks such as Seaside. This goal requires that I create and deliver talks, courses, blog entries, and publications on Smalltalk-related items in a major way. I see Squeak as an essential component of that effort, and will be spending at least one or two days a week completely immersed in understanding Squeak code, writing Squeak code for the core and for separate packages, and writing about Squeak. 2. What are in your mind the three most important issues (not necessarily technical) we need to address in the coming year? * Get Squeak's license resolved. * Leverage off of Ruby's success to relaunch Smalltalk for webapps. * Get the mismash of add-on mechanisms resolved: Adding items to Squeak should be as easy (or easier) than installing CPAN modules. 3. What is your view on fund raising and how any such collected money should be dealt with? Needs should be identified *before* money requests are made. Funding a specific project always results in a far more receptive audience. Heck, as Stonehenge, I've contributed some major cash to specific projects, and very little to "general funds". I've founded a few non-profits over the years, including launching short-lived Perl Institute and the follow-on PerlMongers, and have been involved peripherally with the Perl Foundation. I also have worked with 18 of the Fortune 100, so I have a pretty clear idea about how corps want to deal with outside non-profit organizations. 4. What is your view on the ongoing process of making SqueakFoundation a not-for-profit legal entity? SqF should *not* be a separate charitable organization... it takes far too much time and effort to do that, for very little gain. SqF should be under some umbrella organization that can handle individual donations. However, SqF *should* get (or continue to maintain) legal designation as a "non-profit", which allows certain donations from corporations to be received directly. And this will be necessary for project-based contributions (see #3). 5. Do you think the Team model is appropriate for organising our efforts or should we come up with something else? According to the Screen Director's Guild, a movie has always only one director. That's because, ultimately, there will be lower level conflicts, and it takes arbitration to resolve it ultimately, and this is the Director's role. The director also always holds the "vision" of the entire project, and can communicate that as needed. In this case, Squeak needs a "benevolent dictator" to make the ultimate choices, but will most certainly delegate most of the actual work to trustable lieutenants. Squeak-by-committee will stagnate and be equally useless to everyone. I don't see the Dictator role as a permanent one, but it's definitely a necessary role, and should be filled. In the Perl world, Larry Wall is the ultimate "BD", but every Perl release has a "Pumpking", which has very clear authority to resolve any issues as they see fit. Squeak needs this. 6. Do you have any specific views on how the Squeak board and the Squeak community should work together with the Squeak satellite communities (Croquet, Seaside, Sophie, Squeakland, Scratch etc), also referred to as "stakeholder communities"? Clearly, each of these communities has separate needs and desires. They should be willing to provide their part of the puzzle, but the Squeak core must provide the basic mechanisms and extension paths to support the majority of these communities. 7. The squeak.org release is our most important asset. How do you see it evolving over the next few years? I'd like to see something like Perlmonks erupt somewhere. It's an amazing asset. "Squeakmonks" would not be a replacement for mailing lists and newsgroups, but a good google-viewed database of questions and answers and corrected answers, with some incentive to provide correct answers, would be very useful to the Squeak community. Most of what I know about Squeak I got from folklore... it'd be nice if that folklore could be passed on in a googleable way. 8. Do you have any thoughts on the current relicensing effort? It's mandatory. And for my purposes, it's mandatory that it be licensed with an MIT or BSD style license, so that my customers can continue to develop applications in Squeak and deploy it in commercial environments that would be perhaps open-source hostile. 9. How would you like Squeak to be positioned in the open source world in year 2012? If my efforts are fruitful, RubyOnRails will be gone. Everyone will be using Seaside or Aida or the nextgen of that. :) 10. What do you see as the overall role of the board? Leadership. This means listening to the needs, and finding ways to get the problems out of the way, so that the contributors can get their job done. It also means advocacy and marketing, so that Squeak is seen as a viable choice for projects. -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 <merlyn(a)stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!

1 0

← Newer
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
...
22
Older →

Jump to page: