Smalltalk with James Robertson

Today's screencast looks at a simple "Hello World" app in WebVelocity. If you're looking for a particular topic, you can find it with the Media Search application on our site.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

Technorati Tags: webvelocity, seaside, video

Today's screencast looks at using Twitter from Smalltalk. If you're looking for a particular topic, you can find it with the Media Search application on our site.

Here's the script I used in the screencast after loading the Twitter

"create settings file"
settings := TwitterClient.Settings new.
settings username: 'TwitterScreenNameHere'.
settings password: 'TwitterPasswordHere'.
settings saveTo: 'twitter_settings.ini'.

"get an interface"
model := TwitterModel new.

"get friend updates"
latestUpdates := model getFriendsUpdates.

"get Follower updates"
latestFollowers := model getFollowersUpdates.

"get the current trends"
trends := model getCurrentTrends.
daily := model getDailyTrends.
weekly := model getWeeklyTrends.

"user query"
args := UserQueryArgs new.
args screen_name: 'jarober'.
model showUser: args.

"get direct messages"
args := StatusListArgs new.
args per_page: 100.
model getDirectMessagesFor: args.

"set status"
model setStatusTo: 'From VisualWorks during today''s screencast'.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

Technorati Tags: twitter, social media

Today's screencast looks at creating an RSS feed with a Smalltalk SAX driver. If you're looking for a particular topic, you can find it with the Media Search application on our site.

Here's the script I used to create the RSS Feed - it's using the package FeedWriter from the public store), as per the screencast:

"Using a SAX Driver"
stream := ('rss1.xml' asFilename withEncoding: #'UTF-8') writeStream.
writer := RSS20_SAXWriter new output: stream.

"start the document"
writer prolog.
writer startRSS.
writer startChannel.
writer title: 'My RSS Feed'.
writer link: 'http://www.somesite.com'.
writer description: 'My RSS Feed'.

"Now write an item"
writer startItem.
writer title: 'Test Item'.
writer link: 'http://www.somesite.com/item1'.
writer description: 'test item1'.
writer pubDate: Timestamp now.
writer endItem.

"end the document"
writer endChannel.
writer endRSS.
stream close.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

Technorati Tags: rss, sax, xml

Videos from the Smalltalks 2009 conference in Argentina are online now at the FAST website.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, fast, argentina

A GLASS workshop is planned for May 6th:

Norbert Hartl is putting on a GLASS workshop in Cologne on May 6th. Norbert talked about GLASS at the March 19th Smalltalk meeting in Cologne and there was enough interest in GLASS that he decided to put on a workshop dedicated to covering GLASS and GemStone/S in more detail.

Technorati Tags: gemstone, glass, germany

Today's screencast looks at adding a menu to a VisualWorks UI, using the Menu builder tool. There's also a way to create a menu programmatically; that's a separate topic, covered in this screencast. If you're looking for a particular topic, you can find it the same way I just looked that up - try the Media Search application on our site.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

Technorati Tags: visualworks, UI, menu

Here's part two of our conversation with Dave Buck, about upgrading from older revs of VisualWorks to the latest. It picks up right where we left off; if you haven't listened to part 1, go here.

To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software.

To listen immediately, use the player below:

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Effortless for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to smalltalkpodcasts@cincom.com - or visit us on Facebook or Ning - you can vote for the Podcast Alley, and subscribe on iTunes. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Technorati Tags: podcast, visualworks, upgrade

Instantiations is having a Smalltalk event in Stuttgart, Germany this June:

Join us in Stuttgart, Germany on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 for a full day of discussion and learning on VA Smalltalk.This is a free event, but we ask that you please pre-register at the Registration Site so we know that you are coming.

Today's screencast looks at File Dialogs in Smalltalk - both native and emulated.

You can download the video directly here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?

Technorati Tags: video, file dialog, dialog

I have gone back to working on BottomFeeder a bit - I haven't pushed a 7.7 based release yet, and I figured I really ought to do that. So - I had to look at my build script, as there were a couple of interesting problems cropping up:

• When my build started up, it still thought it was filing in the script
• When my build started up, it was complaining about some missing source files

Neither is a good thing in the context of a runtime application :) So, I started pondering those, and redid the last part of my script, like this:

Parcel searchPathModel value: (List with: (PortableFilename named: '.')).
SourceFileManager default discardSources.

"Now save the image such that this file doesn't get looked for at startup"
[ObjectMemory permSaveAs: 'bottomFeeder' thenQuit: false] fork.
[(Delay forSeconds: 45) wait.
RuntimeSystem isRuntime ifFalse: [ObjectMemory quit]] fork

The first two lines clear the parcel search path (this is in case a VW user installs BottomFeeder - I don't need the app looking up parcels there). The second line simply discards all source pointer lookups, so that the system doesn't fuss about that at startup.

The next bit is trickier, but it's just a simpler version of what RuntimePackager does - Fork a process to save the image, and another to quit the current image. That way, the image that starts up doesn't immediately quit, and also doesn't try to save itself, or attempt to go find the filein. I've still got a lingering timing issue with saving files on quit, but that's unrelated to build stuff - once I get that sorted, I'll push a new release out.

Technorati Tags: BottomFeeder, build script