Smalltalk with James Robertson

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the time profiler in Pharo Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

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Technorati Tags: smalltalk, pharo, profiler

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at a common problem in any development toolset - finding (and removing or reconfiguring) all the breakpoints you set during a develoopment session. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll have a look at how you find and clear (or reconfigure) breakpoints - something that can be quite valuable after you've dropped a number of them during a debugging session. To start with, pull down the Tools menu in the launcher

In the tool that comes up, you'll see each breakpoint you have listed. You can select them from the list, and then use the various menu options on the selection:

Specifically, you can select Clear (to remove) or Configure (to reset the way the BP works) from that menu:

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, breakpoints

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at configurations in Pharo - the tool level, not how they work. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at Unix/Linux Process support in VA Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll have a look at the support for Unix/Linux processes in VA Smalltalk. To start out, we'll have to open up the editions (application) browser:

Load the only version, and then browse the application. Have a look at class UnixProcess (class side) - notice the APIs for starting a shell or a process? If you examine UNixEnvironment, you'll see APIs for dealing with the environment:

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, unix, linux

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the abbreviation (keyboard shortcuts) support in VA Smalltalk - it's a nice companion to the code completion support. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

We've already looked at code completion support in VA Smalltalk, but there's another tool that can help you get code written more quickly - abbreviation support. If you go to the options menu of the launcher, and pull that down, you'll see it:

This support is separate from code completion; to get any of the existing abbreviations working, simply type one in, then hit <shift> <space>. It's easy enough to add your own as well - say you want one for #ifNil:

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, abbreviations

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the online update feature of Pharo. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, pharo

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at more pinpointed benchmarking in Smalltalk - measuring the execution time of a specific block of code. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll look at more fine grained benchmarking in Smalltalk - measuring the execution time of a specific block of code. Quite often, the profiling tools tell you where to look, but you then need to dig deeper to figure things out (for instance, the profiler could point you to a specific method, but that method might be long). It's pretty simple - wrap the code in a block, and then use Time>>millisecondsToRun:

results := Time millisecondsToRun: [blockOfCodeToTestHere].

Now, you'll want to run that block a number of times and average the results to get a decent snapshot of what's happening, but that's all there is to it.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, benchmark

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the standard development process using VA Smalltalk and ENVY. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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There's one more aspect of the VA Smalltalk benchmark tool to look at. If you want to start at the beginning of this tutorial section, get started here - and then have a look at the second and third installments.

Following on from last time, take a look at the pulldown menu button at the top left of the tool - it turns out that a second set of pre-built benchmarks are available there:.

You can run these the same way as we have in the earlier screencasts, and adding new tests to this menu option works as it did for the initial selection

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, benchmark

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the "recently visited" support in Pharo. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, pharo

Today's Smalltalk 4 You goes into more depth on the VA Smalltalk benchmarking tool. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

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If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll look at the options in the VA Smalltalk benchmarking tool. If you want to start at the beginning of this tutorial section, get started here - and then have a look at the second installment.

Following on from last time, create a small benchmark test, make sure to save it. Now pull down the "View" menu. Notice the different options? Select them one at a time, try running the test, and see what results you get in the view.

Notice which part of the UI changes. Now pull down the "Time" menu - again, try a few of those:

Finally, run the tests with a few of the combinations and look at the results:

Finally, have a look at the "Results" menu - note that you can save and load benchmarks for later review and comparison.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk,, benchmarks