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st4u

ST 4U 92: Creating a Configuration Map in VA

June 8, 2011 8:36:00.825

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at creating a configuration map. In ENVY, configuration maps are how you create reproducible, loadable configurations of software in the version control system. 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:

Config Maps.

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 the CounterApp and CounterTestsApp applications, and package them up into a single loadable Configuration. In VA Smalltalk, that's accomplished with an ENVY construct called a ConfigurationMpa. Using the Tools menu, select Browse ConfigurationMaps:

Applications

Config Maps

To create a new Config Map, select the Names menu, and then click on Create...:

Create a Config Map

Give the new Config Map a Name:

Create a Config Map

Now, in the rightmost pane at the top, right click, and select Add.... That will bring up a window, allowing you to add applications to the Configuration map:

Add Applications

We'll move CounterApp and CounterTestsApp over to the right, and click the Ok button:

Add Applications

Finally, using the menu in the second pane, give your Config map a version number - and that's it - you've got a loadable configuration. We'll be going into more depth on Applications and Config Maps in future tutorials, we've barely scratched the surface so far!

Version 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.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk in Dallas?

June 8, 2011 9:55:21.000

We have a pretty decent sized group of Smalltalkers where I'm working now, in the Grand Prairie area (Texas). I know there are other Smalltalk shops in the Metroplex, so it occurs to me that a local user group is something that could work. I'm trying to get meeting space set up where I work - anyone else in the area interested in helping organize such a thing? If so, contact me and let's see what we can do.

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posted by James Robertson

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general

Too Much Government

June 8, 2011 15:00:00.000

Reasonable people can have completely honest debates about the appropriate size of government, and about the proper roles and responsibilities of that government. However - when you have an education department breaking down doors, can't we all agree that there's something very wrong here?

Update: Looks like the link above is broken (did someone lean on the news outlet?).  You can get the "defense" from the Education department here, but my question remains - why on earth is the education department sending para-military units out to execute warrants? 

posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 63: Dynamically Add a CSS Attribute

June 9, 2011 7:42:21.062

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at using the JQuery to add a CSS attribute to 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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smalltalk

Google Analytics From Your Seaside App

June 9, 2011 13:35:50.000

Looks like you can get access to your analytics directly from Seaside now:

I want to announce the release of Google Analytics Tracker, a small tool we make for getitmade.com (Nick Ager's project), to allow us to get analytics data. Right now is very simple, it just give us page visits data, but can be used as a foundation to get a lot more info.

To give it a spin, load up ConfigurationOfGoogleAnalyticsTracker in Pharo.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

Smalltalk and WebDAV

June 9, 2011 16:38:45.000

Craig Latta is using WebDAV with Spoon, in order to enable Smalltalk code accessibility as if it were all in files. I like the idea a lot, and it would be interesting to see that sort of thing done for one of the large Smalltalk implementations.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 93: RESTful Services Using KomHttpServer

June 10, 2011 11:31:26.863

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at how easy it is to set up a RESTful HTTP service using the KOM Http server for Pharo (or Squeak). The example I'm using comes from Guillermo Polito. 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:

REST in Pharo

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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music

Pandora to Get Competition

June 10, 2011 17:33:06.331

Looks like Pandora is getting some competition in the streaming music space - and for people who travel, Spotify will have the added benefit of giving you trans-atlantic access (assuming that stupid record label deals don't get in the way of that, a real possibility):

Spotify has signed an American distribution deal with Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music label. The pact means that the streaming music company now has U.S. deals in place with three of the four largest labels, making it likely that the European company will finally be able to move across the Atlantic this summer.

I'm not sure what this offers me over what Pandora does, but the reviews for Spotify have been good. The more the merrier!

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posted by James Robertson

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news

What's the Roaming Charge For That?

June 11, 2011 10:59:05.804

The iPhone goes to space:

Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to complete its final voyage with a pair of space-ready iPhone 4's aboard. After docking with the International Space Station, astronauts use the phones, not to become Foursquare's Mayor of Space, it seems, but to run an app called SpaceLab for iOS.

Maybe AT&T needs to launch a satellite specifically to provide ISS based roaming :)

posted by James Robertson

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podcast

IM 33: The Scratch Story

June 12, 2011 11:52:56.152

Welcome to episode 33 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week I have another session from Smalltalk Solutions 2011 - John McIntosh's keynote address, about the attempts to get Scratch approved for the app store.

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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podcastAAC

IM 33: The Scratch Story (AAC)

June 12, 2011 11:53:14.762

Welcome to episode 33 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week I have another session from Smalltalk Solutions 2011 - John McIntosh's keynote address, about the attempts to get Scratch approved for the app store.

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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st4u

ST 4U 94: VAST Goodies

June 13, 2011 9:42:22.086

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the VAST Goodies site - a VA Smalltalk seaside powered side used to share community provided VA 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:

VA Goodies.

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 VAST Goodies site - it's both an example of a VA Smalltalk application (using Seaside), and a useful site for getting (and contributing) community provided Smalltalk code. In order to make use of it, you first need to download the tools - which will also serve as an example of how to download and load code from the goodies repository into VA Smalltalk. First, visit vastgoodies.com:

VAST Goodies

Scroll down, and select the Tools link. That will select the configuration map to download in the view. Scroll back up, and select the Download link:

Download

Download

Next, open up a Configuration Map Browser, and under Names, select Import, all versions.

Import

This will pop up a dialog that you can easily misinterpret. To select an import file, just don't enter anything and hit ok:

Import

Now select the file and hit ok in the standard dialog:

Select the File

That added the file to your ENVY library - but an attempt to load from the Configuration Map Browser you have open fails - due to a pre-req that wasn't specified:

Load Failed

Go back to the feature import tool, select SST HTTP, and move it to the right. Then load that:

Pre-Reqs

Now return to the Configuration Map Browser and load the Goodies tools - they'll come in just fine now:

Load Goodies Tools

That gets the tools in - we'll look at how to make use of them in another tutorial.

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.

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games

Civ V?

June 13, 2011 19:21:16.360

I've been hearing nothing but negativity about Civilization V since it came out - so last night, when my daughter sounded interested in it, I couldn't muster any enthusiasm. On the other hand, I haven't seen it myself so - she created a Steam account and downloaded the Mac version. So far, she likes it a lot. Maybe I'll give it a try, so we could play multi-player....

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posted by James Robertson

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js4u

JS 4U 64: Fade Out Animation

June 14, 2011 8:54:52.940

Javascript 4 U

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at a specific type of page animation with JQuery - fading content out. 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:

Fading

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

Fluid Positioning of VW Widgets

June 14, 2011 10:16:38.000

David Buck has been working on a project to make the positioning of VisualWorks widgets on a canvas a whole lot simpler. There's a video demo at the link - pretty cool stuff.

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posted by James Robertson

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smalltalk

ESUG 2011 Call For Papers

June 14, 2011 17:16:47.361

ESUG is making their annual call for papers:

We invite submissions to the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies which is held as part of the ESUG 2011 joint event at Edinburgh.

You can get full details on what they are looking for at the link above. The conference itself is being held August 22-26 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

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posted by James Robertson

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st4u

ST 4U 95: Specifying Configuration Map Pre-Reqs

June 15, 2011 8:27:48.491

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at specifying the prequisites for a configuration map. For the example map we created for the Counter application, we'll need to make sure that the SUnit library pre-loads. 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:

Config Map Pre-Reqs.

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 be going back to the configuration map browser in VA Smalltalk. We created a Configuration Map to load our Counter application and tests together - but we didn't set it up to load the SUnit library if that wasn't already in the image. Today we'll go back and address that. First, open up the browser on the map:

Configuration Maps

To specify pre-requisites, we need to create a new edition. Right click on the 1.0 release, and select Create New Edition:

New Edition

Move the cursor down to the expression pane below, and select Add from the context menu:

Add Configuration Expression

We have to specify a boolean expression here - if it evaluates to true, then the pre-requisite maps in the next pane will be loaded. Typically, we just set this directly to "true", but you can add more complex expressions:

Configuration Expression

Moving one pane to the right, we can now specify configuration maps that should be loaded before the one we are working on - and the load order for them. Pop up the context menu and select Add First. We only have one pre-requisite here - you can change the order if you have more:

Add Pre-requisite

In the window that pops up, move the libraries you need loaded from the left to the right, and then hit "Ok":

Select the Libraries

Now that we've specified the new pre-reqs, we need to release a version. Select the edition in the upper pane and right click - then select Version:

Release New Version

We have been doing all of this work without our library load. With the new edition selected, pop up the context menu again and select Load:

Load

A small window will pop up to tell you what's about to be loaded, and in what order. Simply proceed by pressing "Ok":

Loading

And that's it - we've just loaded the new version, along with its pre-reqs.

Loaded

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.

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smalltalk

GNU Smalltalk: First Steps

June 15, 2011 12:02:53.356

Interested in learning Smalltalk at the command line? Learning Smalltalk shows the way with GNU Smalltalk.

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posted by James Robertson

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copyright

Copyright Troll Hammered

June 15, 2011 15:28:04.000

Looks like RightHaven is getting what it deserves:

A federal judge in Las Vegas today issued a potentially-devastating ruling against copyright enforcer Righthaven LLC, finding it doesn't have standing to sue over Las Vegas Review-Journal stories, that it has misled the court and threatening to impose sanctions against Righthaven.

This is welcome news, but it doesn't change my baseline theory - copyright and patent law in the US are fundamentally broken. Instead of encouraging innovation, they are encouraging trolling.

posted by James Robertson

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itNews

Meanwhile at the Office...

June 15, 2011 22:29:15.000

With all of the "cloud" news, it's easy to miss things like this: the massive sales of MS Office 2010:

In a phone interview Tuesday, Numoto further said "since the launch of Office 2010 we've been selling a copy of Office every second." We'll do the math for you: that's about 31.5 million copies. The number could be higher, assuming Microsoft is counting only Office 2010 sales and not Office for Mac 2011, which came out late last year.

The standard desktop is still a big seller, regardless of how much hype you hear about everything else...

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posted by James Robertson

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