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js4u

JS 4U 48: JQuery and CSS

April 19, 2011 11:11:43.463

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at using JQuery selectors in conjunction with css, in order to change specific css properties on a page . 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:

JQuery and CSS

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

This is Seaside

April 19, 2011 11:17:15.113

Want a real world example of a Seaside app? Here's one in the financial sector - and it's a GLASS app.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Squeak for Android Progress

April 20, 2011 9:57:36.259

Dmitry Golubovsky has made some progress on getting Squeak running on Android:

I am glad to announce that the Squeak Port for Android Tablets [1] has reached its first milestone. Work has been done towards fixing certain usability issues such as better integration with Android Input Methods, access to local file system, etc.

There's more info at the link, including download info. The one big downside so far - no socket support yet.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 72: Exploring VA Smalltalk

April 20, 2011 11:17:32.460

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at one way of exploring VA Smalltalk. One of the things I like to do with a system I'm not terribly familiar with is start from something I do know, and explore from there. In this screencast, we take a bit of code I know well, and use it to jump into the tools and system. If you prefer a written walkthrough to video, then skip down to it. 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:

Exploring VA

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:


One of the best ways that I know of to explore a new Smalltalk system is to take a piece of code I've written quite a lot in other Smalltalks, and start exploring the system using that as a jumping off point. That way, I'm not stumbling over both the less familiar system and the code at the same time. Translating that to VA Smalltalk, I took this as my starting point:


count := 1.
block := [[true] whileTrue:
				[count := count + 1.
				Transcript show: count printString; cr.
				(Delay forSeconds: 2) wait]].
proc := block forkAt: Processor userBackgroundPriority.


It's the core of just about every server process I've ever created in Smalltalk - except that the real ones do actual work instead of writing to the Transcript. For our purposes here though, this is perfect. Let's start by highlighting Processor in the workspace, right clicking, and selecting inspect. This is what you should see:

ProcessorScheduler

From there, it might be interesting to look at the implementation. So back in the launcher, select Tools>>browse class:

Browse Class

You should see the class browser, allowing you to start looking at the implementation:

Browsing Class

One thing that's different about VA, at least compared to Squeak, Pharo, or VisualWorks - look at the three tabs above the selector pane on the right - public, private, all. In VA, private methods are a bit more segregated. There's nothing in the system that prevents you from invoking a private method, but VA does make them visibly separate in a way that most Smalltalks don't. This makes it much more obvious when you are crossing the divide between a public API and a private one.

Now we might want to look at the actual Process class - we have one running, and it would be useful to be able to control it. Let's go back to the workspace, and inspect the proc variable:

Inspect a Process

Inspector on a Process

From here, you can browse the class directly. On the toolbar for the inspector, find the Browse Hierarchy button and click it:

Hierarchy Browser

Clicking around we spot the #terminate method, and we go back to the workspace, invoke that code and kill the running process:

Terminate a Process

In future tutorials, we'll start examining each of these tools - browsers and inspectors - in depth. Today's goal was to show you how you can use a small bit of pre-existing knowledge as a jumping off point to explore VA Smalltalk

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

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Test Coverage in Pharo

April 20, 2011 16:00:21.000

It's not enough to write unit tests - you need to have a handle on how good your test coverage is. For Pharo, there's Hapao - and this morning, a new screencast on using it.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk and GTK

April 20, 2011 18:26:09.000

Gwenael Casaccio shows you how to use GTK with GNU Smalltalk in this short tutorial.

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posted by James Robertson

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games

Game Reviews as a Sport

April 21, 2011 9:24:05.869

This looks like the future of game reviews to me:

From hate to love back to unmitigated odium, it looks like Portal 2 customers are gaming review aggregator Metacritic in an attempt to both sabotage and rehabilitate the average user score by playing “score tennis,” tagging the physics puzzler with extreme scores and pithy appeals.

That happens to be about Portal 2, but you can see the same dynamic at work with Dragon Age 2. Probably with other games I haven't looked into as well. To see this for yourself, just google "XX Review", where XX is the name of the game you want to know about. Other than universally loved or hated games, picking through the plethora of results isn't easy.

Relying on the "major" sites isn't necessarily an answer either; I was listening to the Joystiq podcast on Dragon Age 2 yesterday, and it was clear that their knowledge of the game was superficial - at best. The best you can do is read widely, then make up your own mind as to whether it's worth taking the plunge.

posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 49: Modifying Multiple CSS Properties

April 21, 2011 11:24:05.797

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at using JQuery selectors to modify multiple CSS attributes of a page element. 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:

JQuery and CSS

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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gadgets

Poor Service

April 21, 2011 21:00:15.465

My wife has had no joy getting voice activated dialing to work on her new phone (a Samsung Transform running Froyo) - it simply refuses to use the bluetooth headset in a reasonable way. She'll tell it "Call Jim Cell", and it'll prompt her on the screen as to what it should do. Seriously?

This wasn't making her happy, so we headed to the mall to go to the Sprint Kiosk where we bought the phone a few days ago. There was a sign there:

We waited an hour, doing a couple of other errands nearby - the Sprint guy never came back. So now we blew an hour on that, and we still have this crap phone that doesn't do voice calling well. Awesome, Sprint - if you guys wonder why I plan to stay with Apple, you can read this post and ponder it a bit. They might cost more, but the customer service is always awe inspiring

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 73: Exploring VA Browsers

April 22, 2011 10:08:32.140

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes an overview look at the browser set in VA Smalltalk (omitting the ENVY specific ones - we'll go through those in a separate tutorial). If you prefer a written walkthrough to video, then skip down to it. 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:

VA Browsers

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 take a look at some of the different kinds of browsers in VA Smalltalk, and what they are used for. This is an overview; we'll be going into more depth in other tutorials. Go to the launcher, and pull down the tools menu, and select Browse Classes

Class Browser

You should see something like this pop up:

Browse Class

That's the class browser; we'll put that aside and pull down the tools menu again, selecting Browse Senders. You'll get prompted for a selector; enter at:

Browsing Senders

This brings up a browser on all of the senders of the message #at: - there are a lot of them. Let's put that aside, and find all of the implementors of #at:

Browsing Senders

Let's push that aside and look for all of the implementors - pull down the tools menu again and select Browse Implementors:

Browsing Implementors

Enter at: again, and you should see this:

Browsing Senders

This browser looks a lot like the previous one, it's just focused on the implementations rather than the invocations. Let's move along to references - what if you want to find all of the places that a class, Global, or class variable are used? Pull down the tools menu again, and select Browse References. Enter something like Processor:

Browsing References

You'll get a browser that looks like this:

Browsing References

More often, you'll want to browse a specific class - pull down the tools menu again, and select Browse Class - I entered Collection:

Browse Class

Browse Class

There's another browsing option in VA that's not common in Smalltalk - Browse Categor, which is again available from the tools menu:

Browse Category

Try entering Printing:

Browse Category

And that wraps up a quick tour of the various browsers - leaving the version control related ones aside, which we'll cover in depth in a separate tutorial.

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

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

RIM Drops the Ball

April 22, 2011 10:57:27.520

InfoWorld savages the new PlayBook - and it does sound like RIM not only dropped the ball, they purposely threw it away. Go read the whole thing - the list of things they did wrong is simply too long to excerpt.

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posted by James Robertson

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gadgets

Your Waiter, the iPad

April 22, 2011 17:53:02.269

Honestly, this is a level of disintermediation I hadn't really expected: tablets replacing a lot of waiter functions:

So what does the future of ordering food look like? The tablets allow you to browse the menu, and check out what your meal look like before you order. You can then share what you find with others at the table. Once you and your group find something that you like, the tablet relays your order directly to the kitchen.

Makes sense to me, and I'd expect this sort of thing to be used as a major cost saving measure in some of the bigger chains. High end places will still employ full service wait staff, but this sort of thing could take out the entire mid range.

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posted by James Robertson

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podcast

IM 26: Redline Smalltalk at StS 2011

April 24, 2011 12:12:17.359

Welcome to episode 26 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week's podcast was recorded at Smalltalk Solutions 2011 - it's James Ladd and Sean T Allen talking about Redline Smalltalk. If you would prefer to watch the video, scroll down to the embed.

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!

Redline Smalltalk: The Journey So Far from Smalltalk Industry Council on Vimeo.

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podcastAAC

IM 26: Redline Smalltalk at StS 2011 (AAC)

April 24, 2011 12:12:54.469

Welcome to episode 26 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck. This week's podcast was recorded at Smalltalk Solutions 2011 - it's James Ladd and Sean T Allen talking about Redline Smalltalk. If you would prefer to watch the video, scroll down to the embed.

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!

Redline Smalltalk: The Journey So Far from Smalltalk Industry Council on Vimeo.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 74: Examining the VA Smalltalk Class Browser

April 25, 2011 5:40:50.275

Today's Smalltalk 4 You takes an overview look at the class browser in VA Smalltalk If you prefer a written walkthrough to video, then skip down to it. 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:

VA Class 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:


Today we'll take a look at the code browser in VA Smalltalk - starting with the Class Browser. Go to the launcher, and pull down the tools menu:

Class Browser

You should see something like this pop up:

Browse Class

You should see the class browser, allowing you to start looking at the implementation:

Browsing Class

Going from left to right, you have the classes, listed in alphabetical order. The next pane over is Applications - each class is defined in exactly one application, and may be extended in many others. Select an application, and you'll see the methods defined for the selected class in that application. The next pane over is method categories - the bolded ones are in use for the selected application, while the grayed out ones are in others. Finally, all the way to the right is the method pane - where you'll see the methods defined for the selected application and category.

Note that you can select class or instance methods (below the method pane), and you can select method types - public, private, or, ignoring the distinction, all:

Class Browser

Now, select Private under the class list pane. Note that all of the public classes (such as Object) are now grayed out. In VA Smalltalk, you can define classes as private, not just methods. The browser operates the same way regardless of this selection; it's simply a filter. Going back to the public view, let's select class Object. At the bottom you have the source pane, and there are a few different modes there as well, controlled by the tabs above the pane. Select Class Definition to see the definition of the class:

Class Definition

Select Method Definition to return to the default view, source for the selected method:

Method Source

Note that VA allocates some extra options for documentation. In addition to standard Smalltalk comments, there are tabs for Method Comments and Method Notes:

Method Comments

Method Notes

And that wraps up a quick tour of the class browser. We'll look at the other kinds of browsers, as well as the menus and toolbar, in other tutorials.

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

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posted by James Robertson

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Macintosh

Single User Boot the Mac

April 25, 2011 20:34:11.475

I've had a few kernel panics in the last couple of days, so when I got back from work today I pinged Apple (I have Apple Care, so that makes the whole thing easier). It turns out that booting into single user mode and running fsck is pretty simple - you reboot, and hold down command-s on reboot. That drops you to a root prompt, where you can do anything you know how to do in Unix. Pretty cool :)

posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 50: Modifying Element Attributes with JQuery

April 26, 2011 6:39:27.408

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at using JQuery selectors to modify the height and width of a div on a page. 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:

JQuery and Element Attributes

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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Macintosh

Kernel Panic from the Backup Drive

April 26, 2011 8:32:16.585

SO after I ran the fsck, I had another panic. I looked more carefully at the report, and it looked like it was trying to run a time machine backup. Then I recalled that when I updated to 10.6.7, my backup drive had a problem - it seems that it still does. I unhooked the drive, and voila - the problem went away. I guess it's time to hit amazon for a new drive...

posted by James Robertson

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games

Fallout New Vegas Updated

April 26, 2011 17:40:33.558

Based on what I read, this update means that the next round of Fallout: New Vegas is on the way soon:

Hotel internet, meh :)

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posted by James Robertson

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