Squeak-dev February 2012

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62 participants
155 discussions

Squeak Oversight Board minutes – 02/07/12
by Chris Cunnington 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

Attending: Chris Muller, Colin Putney, Randal Schwartz, Chris Cunnington - This was mainly an idea session for things to do for Squeak 4.4 - Project ideas such as OmniBrowser, namespaces, and building small images (from a larger mother image) were explored - The introduction of new ideas prompted discussion about the importance of moving in incremental steps when breaking backward compatibility, so that the entirety of the Squeak community can reasonably move forward in stepwise fashion. - A general question of how Squeak is relevant in 2012 was posited. While advances to the vm and image create greater computing power, what could be the next killer app?

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Resource Descriptor Framework
by Ben Coman 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

Is there much being done with Resource Description Framework in Squeak/Pharo? I have some RDF data files that I need to load for my masters project and am seeking advice on how to approach this. I am only just learning about RDF for the first time. For anyone else interested the best short overview I found so far is [ http://logicerror.com/semanticWeb-webdev ] Apparently it this is a Simplified RDF Syntax as described at [ http://www.langdale.com.au/CIMXML/PSModelExchange.pdf ] A data file looks like like this... <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:cim="http://iec.ch/TC57/2007/CIM-schema-cim12#"> <cim:ACLineSegment rdf:ID="_7814201"> <cim:Conductor.length>95</cim:Conductor.length> <cim:IdentifiedObject.name>AMHE400MARCLINE</cim:IdentifiedObject.name> <cim:ConductingEquipment.BaseVoltage rdf:resource="#_400000302"/> <cim:Equipment.MemberOf_EquipmentContainer rdf:resource="#_487038201"/> </cim:ACLineSegment> The most obvious project on Squeaksource is Rakaiko [a] which says "RDF is an essential part of the new web technologies and a fundamental layer of the semantic Web 2.0 [...] This API, compliant with the W3C RDF specification will allow a developer to handle an RDF graph in its various forms (RDF/XML, N3, abstract graph). In other words, it would be the Squeak equivalent of the Jena Java RDF API." However there has been no activity on Rakaiko since 2007 and there is no apparent documentation. Has anyone used this and/or is this abandoned? Page 20 of "ESUG 2006 Welcome" mentions a "RDF Framework for Smalltalk." Did anything come of this? Alternatively I could fake it and learn just how to parse the XML directly and manually translate it into the class model. (It seems processing an a RDF Schema might be able to automatically create the class definition as well as the instance creation ) There is PetitXML, which however is not included by ConfigurationOfPetitParser.24 loaded on Moose 4.6. What is the status of PetitXML ? Also Moose 4.6 has XML-Parser. Which of XML-Parser or PetitXML would be the better approach ? I've watched http://www.tudorgirba.com/blog/simple-xml-browser-with-glamour but not sure whether than will help me actually load the data into a model. You opinion of these various approaches would be appreciated, and of course pointers to any examples/documentation.

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Re: [squeak-dev] The Inbox: Kernel-cmm.669.mcz
by Nicolas Cellier 07 Feb '12

07 Feb '12

2012/2/4 <commits(a)source.squeak.org>: > A new version of Kernel was added to project The Inbox: > http://source.squeak.org/inbox/Kernel-cmm.669.mcz > > ==================== Summary ==================== > > Name: Kernel-cmm.669 > Author: cmm > Time: 3 February 2012, 5:55:11.175 pm > UUID: 5ddec343-01ad-4e76-b32c-299fac68ec09 > Ancestors: Kernel-eem.668 > > Introduced Timespan class>>defaultOffset. This is the offset that will be used for creation of all Timespans when an offset is not specified. When an offset is specified or involved in construction or calculation, the result is now produced in terms of the source offset. > For example, Date today now produces a globalized date by default. However, "Date starting: (DateAndTime year: 2004 month: 2 day: 29 hour: 13 minute: 33 second: 0 offset: 2 hours)" produces a Date.whose start is expressed in terms of UTC+2. > The default defaultOffset is Duration zero so that Squeak will have fast, globalized Dates out of the box. Globalized Dates are common for applications. > Legacy localized Dates can be obtained by evaluating "Date localize" so that, when an offset is not specified or otherwise involved in the input, the local offset will be used. > > =============== Diff against Kernel-eem.668 =============== > SNIP... > > Item was changed: > ----- Method: DateAndTime>>asSeconds (in category 'smalltalk-80') ----- > asSeconds > "Return the number of seconds since the Squeak epoch" > + ^ (self - (self class epoch offset: offset)) asSeconds! > - > - ^ (self - (self class epoch)) asSeconds! > OK, I see why you changed this one, just to preserve the fact that DateAndTime epoch is local time zone sensitive... But why was it so? Anyone has a good rationale? Nicolas

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Squeak/Seaside all in one
by Chris Cunnington 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

http://squeak.org/Documentation/Installation/#h-5 Owing to Tobias Pape building an up-to-date Seaside image (3.0.6) for Squeak and Ken Causey's speedy assistance with the Squeak server/box, there is now an up to date image available above. It can also be accessed from a link at the bottom of the squeak.org homepage in the Extraordinary Squeak section. Chris

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Squeak/Seaside all in one
by Chris Cunnington 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Let me look into it and get back to you. Chris

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FOSDEM devroom
by Stephan Eggermont 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Yesterday we had a nice day filled with great presentations. Getting to Brussels the day before proved to be a challenge, as the Dutch railways showed to have lots of trouble with 3 cm of snow and a cold night. Andy showed us a good place to eat and talk near the Central Station. In the end all presenters managed to be on time and the whole day ran smoothly. As the devroom was the second day of FOSDEM, we thought it wise not to start too early. That was a good idea, as the ULB was still very quiet when Norbert showed us how to create REST/json/xml based services. Markus followed with the Pharo Vision. Gradually more people came to the devroom until the jQueryMobile presentation was so filled that we had to refuse people entering the room. The Amber presentation also attracted a lot of people new to smalltalk. The ability to create a fast feedback cycle apparently is a major issue for javascript developers. The progress made since ESUG2011 is impressive. The next subjects (working with many cores, making smalltalk fast, spoon) still attracted over 40 participants. The introduction to smalltalk attracted quite a lot of young developers. Some remarks by participants: - a consistent set of keybindings, allowing switching between windows is essential (a developer who has trouble using a mouse for longer periods); - current developers are no longer used to free floating windows, it doesn't matter if it is better, to attract new people you need to remove barriers to entry (a freepascal maintainer); - I would have expected to have started with the basics (we focused on the things we experienced as difficult and different, using the different inspectors and browsers to navigate a large codebase, debugger driven development) And some reminder for ourselves - Tests for the domain model are not enough to ensure that the whole application works correctly; - Throw away old builds; - Check if there are enough power strips. I very much liked talking to people otherwise only known from the mailing lists and the cross-pollination between the different dialects. I would have liked to have more time for discussions. A lunch break might be a good idea. And finally a remark for next years devroom manager: don't expect to see much from FOSDEM :) Stephan Eggermont

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Squeak/Seaside all in one
by Tobias Pape 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

Dear all I packaged Seaside 3.0.6 on Squeak 4.3 just like the 3.0rc? on Squeak 4.1 (see http://www.squeak.org/Documentation/Installation/#h-5) How can I get it onto the ftp server (and probably onto the website)? Best -Tobias

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Re: [squeak-dev] Smalltalk for small projects only?
by mkobetic＠gmail.com 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

"Janko Mivšek"<janko.mivsek(a)eranova.si> wrote: > Ralph Johnson in his InfoQ interview made an interesting observation: > > 2:55 minute: "Smalltalk made an fundamental error ... image ... you can > build something with 4-5 people what 50 people can build in Java, but if > you take 200 people in Java ... it is really designed for small systems > ... " > > Are we because of the image really destined for relatively small > projects and small systems (of Java 50 people project size)? The "image" argument is one of the easiest to pick when you want to justify your xenophobic reaction to an unfamiliar environment you're about to enter ("... but they are green and have antennas...", never mind that the antennas may actually be useful for something). But there's nothing fundamental about Smalltalk that requires an image, c.f. there are a few Smalltalks that don't make you use one (e.g. Smalltalk/X). It's just frozen state, many IDEs and editors allow you to freeze their state (e.g. Eclipse workspace), it would be a royal pain having to reopen the files you were working on manually every time, wouldn't it. I think the problem is that most newbies, when being introduced to Smalltalk, are immediately confronted with "the image" as if it was something fundamental, like they couldn't get any further until they grok it. But there's nothing preventing you from never saving the image. Just commit your source code (and it could just as easily be a common file based VC in the back there) and quit the image. Always start from a fresh one and load the code back in. In this mode there's (superficially*) no difference between Smalltalk and any other IDE, you write your code, you run it, debug it, commit it, etc. You can completely forget the image if you want, it's just that most seasoned smalltalkers (the ones doing the introduction) have learned to take advantage of the image and using it in all kinds of creative ways, so they want to pass the knowledge along and manage to freak the newbies out in the process. (*) the real difference between Smalltalk and other IDEs, that may or may not be an issue in any particular case, is that the IDE runs in the same memory space using the same code base as the application, so your development can crash the IDE, while other IDEs prefer to crash on their own :-). But I disagree that the image is some sort of technical obstacle to scalability, I think it's completely orthogonal. The only place where it's hard to ignore the image with the image based Smallltalks is deployment. At this stage the image is the "compiled object code", in the same sense that a shared library is "compiled object code". You can (and some do) deploy as a clean base image, load the application code on start and launch the application. That's no different from a java or python app, their base image is just burned into the VM. But it's so much easier to make that snapshot when all of this is finally loaded in memory and ready to run. It loads faster, there are no scattered files to hunt down in the dark corners of the filesystem, makes perfect sense in many (most?) cases. If people are freaked out that they don't need to mess with CLASS_PATH, or PYTHONPATH or what have you, well, it would be quite easy to "fix that", wouldn't it. You could say that every piece of software "has an image". When it is loaded it initializes its runtime structures, lays them out in memory and starts running. Nothing fundamentally different from the base image case, the "image" is just burned into the executable. If the VM was simply embedded in every saved smalltalk image and the resulting file was turned into an executable, you can't really tell the difference. The image just wouldn't be portable anymore. So I could agree that the image can be an obstacle to adoption if you rub it in people's face, but it can just as easily be mostly ignored. It's not significant unless you make it so in your development process.

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Re: [squeak-dev] The Inbox: Kernel-cmm.669.mcz
by Nicolas Cellier 05 Feb '12

05 Feb '12

2012/2/4 <commits(a)source.squeak.org>: > A new version of Kernel was added to project The Inbox: > http://source.squeak.org/inbox/Kernel-cmm.669.mcz > > ==================== Summary ==================== > > Name: Kernel-cmm.669 > Author: cmm > Time: 3 February 2012, 5:55:11.175 pm > UUID: 5ddec343-01ad-4e76-b32c-299fac68ec09 > Ancestors: Kernel-eem.668 > > Introduced Timespan class>>defaultOffset. This is the offset that will be used for creation of all Timespans when an offset is not specified. When an offset is specified or involved in construction or calculation, the result is now produced in terms of the source offset. > For example, Date today now produces a globalized date by default. However, "Date starting: (DateAndTime year: 2004 month: 2 day: 29 hour: 13 minute: 33 second: 0 offset: 2 hours)" produces a Date.whose start is expressed in terms of UTC+2. > The default defaultOffset is Duration zero so that Squeak will have fast, globalized Dates out of the box. Globalized Dates are common for applications. > Legacy localized Dates can be obtained by evaluating "Date localize" so that, when an offset is not specified or otherwise involved in the input, the local offset will be used. > > =============== Diff against Kernel-eem.668 =============== > > Item was changed: > ----- Method: DateAndTime>>midnight (in category 'squeak protocol') ----- > midnight > + "Answer a DateAndTime starting at midnight of the same timezone offset as the receiver." > + ^ self class basicNew > - "Answer a DateAndTime starting at midnight local time" > - > - ^self class basicNew > setJdn: jdn > seconds: 0 > nano: 0 > + offset: offset! > - offset: self class localOffset > - ! > I like this one because | dateAndTime | dateAndTime := DateAndTime year: 2012 month: 1 day: 1 hour: 1 minute: 1 second: 1 offset: 10 hours. self assert: (dateAndTime asDate includes: dateAndTime) will succeed whatever your local time zone...

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Re: [squeak-dev] About the new Date
by Chris Muller 05 Feb '12

05 Feb '12

> My other concern as previously noted is that it does not seem to me > to make logical sense to have "Date today" answer a duration with a > start time of yesterday at 5 hours before midnight. Maybe that is not > important in practice but it does not feel right to me. You can go back to localized dates with: Date localize However, "globalized" make perfect sense to me and I would think they would for you too in the context of the manufacturing system..

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