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st4u

ST 4U 36: The Pharo Debugger

January 19, 2011 6:42:29.937

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a look at the Pharo debugger, using it to diagnose and fix a small bug. 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:

Debugger

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Cincom Smalltalk Offline?

January 19, 2011 11:34:59.192

Looks like the Cincom Smalltalk website is down this morning. If you're on the VWNC mailing list, people have been posting about it there.

Update: - it came back while I was at lunch

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Cincom Public Store Repository?

January 19, 2011 23:46:51.915

I guess things aren't back to normal at cincomsmalltalk.com yet - the public store repository is offline this evening.

posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 25: Booleans

January 20, 2011 6:41:19.708

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we take a look at the Boolean class in Javascript. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

Booleans

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Test Coverage in Pharo

January 20, 2011 9:58:09.000

There's a new test coverage tool for Pharo - Hapao:

Hapao is an innovative test coverage tool, implemented in the Pharo Smalltalk programming language. It employs an effective and intuitive graphical representa- tion to visually assess the quality of the coverage.

Follow the link for downloads, screenshots, and documentation.

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk on Rubinius

January 20, 2011 11:27:21.000

Looks like a work in progress - Smalltalk on Rubinius.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Builds and Project Oddities

January 20, 2011 11:34:48.793

You find a lot of quirks when you try to automate your Smalltalk builds. Some of them are related to your project, and others are in the system itself. With the way VisualWorks is built now, it's easy (in theory) to unload packages you don't need at runtime. For instance, here's the code I use to pull the entire Debugger bundle:

[(Store.Registry pundleNamed: 'Tools-Debugger') ifNotNil: [:pundle |
      pundle leafItems do: [:each | each markNotModified].
      [pundle markNotModified; unloadFromImage] on: Warning do: [:ex | ex resume: true]].

Seems easy enough, right? Do the same for the rest of the tools, including the UIPainter, and you get a smaller runtime where you know exactly what got pulled out and why (as opposed to the somewhat arcane process that the RTP uses). This is where I ran into some problems though - in package Debugger-UI, there's a postUnloadBlock:

[
        Notifier beDevelopment]

I think that's an artifact from when VW had its own debugger, and the PDP was an add on - unload it, and it restored the base behavior. Now, when you try to unload the debugger, that fires and immediately blows up. It seems like something that could be easily fixed; I tossed this code into my build script:

(Store.Registry pundleNamed: 'DebuggerUI') properties at: #postUnloadBlock put: [:pkg | ].

That worked, but the Debugger-UI Parcel still had that block. So I tried this:

(Parcel parcelNamed: 'Debugger-UI') properties at: #postUnloadBlock put: [:pcl | ].

And... no effect. I scratched my head over that one for a bit, then finally decided it was easier to just dynamically recompile the offending method (Notifier>>beDevelopment) than it was to keep pounding sand. That's a problem with the base system (VW 7.6). Then there are issues at the project level.

As part of the system here, there are two overrides to classes in UIPainter. Ideally, they would be in a development package instead of the master bundle, but right now, that's not my call. I'd still like to be able to unload UIPainter, so how do I get there? Simple - yank the overrides in the script, then remove the painter. I had to debug my way through the browser doing an override removal to find this code:

overrides := (Store.Registry pundleNamed: 'UIPainter') overrides select: [:each | each class = OverridenClass].
overrides do: [:each | each reinstall.
			Override removeOverride: each].

That restores the base behavior, removing the overrides from the master bundle (which are only needed during development) - and thus allowing UIPainter to be cleanly removed. That was almost all the interesting issues, but I ran across one more.

Yesterday, I did a test build with a colleague. The runtime looked good, but it threw an MNU - something that surprised me - the whole point of avoiding the RTP was to get more predictability, right? Well, it turns out that the RTP scan can cause you grief, but it's also smart enough to spot things you might miss. In this case, I missed this: we use HotDraw, which happens to live in the Refactory namespace. Where is that namespace defined? In the RB bundle. What's one of the things I'm removing? The RB. The fix is pretty simple here. Instead of yanking the entire RB bundle, I just yank all of the packages in the bundle except for the one that defines the needed namespace.

At least so far as I know now, that looks like all the issues - my little build tool produces a runtime, and it doesn't look like anything we need is missing. I'd be curious to know what similar issues other people have run into though - the ones I detailed above weren't always easy to spot, and who knows - I may well be missing something else :)

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Kinect and EToys

January 20, 2011 12:30:03.000

The folks at GIRA have hooked up Kinect and EToys - follow the link for some video and explanation on how to get started.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 37: A First Look at Squeak

January 21, 2011 6:28:44.481

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a first look at using Squeak. 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:

Squeak

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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news

Two Suns in the Sky

January 21, 2011 9:40:31.000

If this comes to pass - Betelgeuse going SuperNova and giving us what looks like a "second sun" for a few weeks - it would be awesome:

When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe

Hat tip Rob Fahrni

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Camp Smalltalk Wiki

January 21, 2011 12:36:33.000

Instantiations has set up a new wiki for Camp Smalltalk - and you can attend the next one of those on the weekend before StS 2011.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

More on Seaside Testing Tools

January 21, 2011 18:58:11.709

Tony Fleig has a part 2 up on automated Seaside app testing

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posted by James Robertson

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stupidity

Those Bright Folks at the RIAA

January 21, 2011 19:04:19.552

Just when you think the RIAA can't get dumber, they show that there are depths past the seemingly possible. They think that the mere existence of a .music TLD will facilitate piracy.

Apparently, certain arrangements of letters are just evil

posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Scripting with Pharo

January 22, 2011 11:42:09.539

Coral is a library that improves Pharo's scripting capabilities - now I just need to wake my rusty French up so I can read the installation instructions...

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posted by James Robertson

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science

A Transplant You Don't Want to Talk About

January 22, 2011 17:48:39.000

I think the word "craptastic" comes to mind....

posted by James Robertson

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podcast

Independent Misinterpretations 14: Smalltalk Build Systems

January 23, 2011 11:07:49.499

Welcome to episode 14 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week Michael and I talk about build systems for Smalltalk applications - something I've been working on in my new job.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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posted by James Robertson

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podcastAAC

Independent Misinterpretations 14: Smalltalk Build Systems (AAC)

January 23, 2011 11:07:53.769

Welcome to episode 14 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week Michael and I talk about build systems for Smalltalk applications - something I've been working on in my new job.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.

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

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

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posted by James Robertson

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humor

What Social Means

January 23, 2011 19:37:21.635

This is funny, but also very true.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 38: A Look at Morphic Halos

January 24, 2011 7:44:18.229

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a first look at Morphic Halos - from the user's perspective (where the user is a developer).. 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:

Morphic Halos

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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media

Paywalls and Internal Politics

January 24, 2011 13:30:00.000

The New York Times' new paywall just doesn't make much sense. Not the overall concept, just the specific implementation. Here's what they supposedly plan to do:

The person familiar with the matter said the Times has considered charging around $20 a month for the digital bundle and less than half that for the Web-only offering

But there's a problem with that approach, as Felix Salmon notes:

This strikes me as peculiar. The idea seems to be that if you want to use the NYT iPad app at all, that’ll cost you a hefty $240 per year, over and above the cost of the iPad itself. But if you want to read the nytimes.com website on your iPad, that’s probably free — and even if you’re in the minority of power users, it’ll still be less than half the price of the app. Essentially, the NYT is doing everything it can to drive its iPad-owning readers away from the app and towards the built-in browser.

Exactly - what would possess me to try their iPad app under this deal? Why not just stick with the website? If they want to attract me to a pay model (where the website is free until I cross a threshold), then they need to make it more attractive, not less.

This looks like the result of an internal political battle that the iPad backers at the Times lost. They get their app, but in a "guaranteed to lose" fashion. The website side will then point and laugh, and not lose any of their budget.

posted by James Robertson

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games

Fallout Fan Fiction

January 24, 2011 21:59:37.682

Take a Nuka Break:

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 26: Math Functions

January 25, 2011 7:39:17.238

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we take a look at the built in Math library in Javascript. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube.

Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

Booleans

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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movies

3D Films: Doomed by Evolution?

January 25, 2011 13:51:50.000

Via Roger Ebert, Walter Murch says yes:

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the "convergence/focus" issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and "smallness" -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.
...
We can do this. 3D films would not work if we couldn't. But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the "CPU" of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix.

Read the whole thing, which has a lot of detail I left out. Bottom line - it sounds like 3D is an expensive gimmick that most people simply can't adapt to, through no fault of their own...

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Limited Unlimited with Verizon

January 25, 2011 18:37:12.915

Verizon is going to offer the unlimited $30/month data plan for the iPhone (apparently with the mobile hotspot). That's a ton better than the data plans ATT has now, but: it's a limited time offer. There's a possible reason to switch over now if your contract is in the right place, I guess.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 39: The Squeak Browser

January 26, 2011 8:35:09.530

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes a look at the Squeak Browser. 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:

Squeak Browser

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:

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Squeak and SSL: HowTo

January 26, 2011 14:40:23.000

Andreas Raab explains how to use SSL with Squeak in a nicely detailed post. Check it out.

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posted by James Robertson

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weather

Weather Differences

January 26, 2011 22:01:39.044

This is what things looked like as I walked into work today in Dallas:

Meanwhile, back home:

Looks like my daughter gets to shovel some snow

posted by James Robertson

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