Smalltalk with James Robertson

The STIC 2013 conference is set now - it will be in Arizona, at the Wigwam Hotel, from June 9 - June 11. I'll post more details as I get them.

In the meantime, if you are interested in presenting at the conference, start getting a headline description of what you want to talk about together - a call for participation should be coming out soon.

Technorati Tags: stic12

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at file i/o in VA Smalltalk - starting with the basics. 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 file handling in VA Smalltalk. The simplest way to get started is with FileStream - which doesn't look like it exists. That's because it's an alias for CfsFileStream:

Working with files in VA Smalltalk is fairly straightforward. You send messages to the abstract superclass (CfsFileStream), and, depending on the API, you get back the concrete subclass. You then work with that using standard stream protocol:

"Open a file read only"
stream := FileStream open: 'abt.ini' oflag: ORDONLY.
text := stream upToEnd.
stream close.
^text


"open a file, simpler API
stream := FileStream read: 'abt.ini'.
text := stream upToEnd.
stream close.
^text

"open for writing"
stream := FileStream write: 'test.txt'.
stream nextPutAll: 'This is a test'; cr.
stream close.

Go ahead and try those out (possibly changing the names depending on what files exist in for working directory).

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, file io

David Buck is setting up another online Smalltalk training course:

I've been asked if I can deliver an "Intro to VisualWorks" webcast course sometime in October. This course would be delivered over the Internet so students wouldn't need to travel to take the course. If you are interested or know of anyone who's interested, drop me an e-mail at david@simberon.com.

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at putting simple graphic overlays onto a Google Map. 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:

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: javascript, maps

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at what you can do when your changes file gets to be absurdly large in VisualWorks (or ObjectStudio). 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, visualworks, changes

Welcome to episode 95 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from the STIC 2012 conference - John O'Keefe giving an update on teh state of VA Smalltalk: where it's at, and where it's headed. If you would rather watch the video, head on over to the STIC website.

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!

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, stic12

Welcome to episode 95 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from the STIC 2012 conference - John O'Keefe giving an update on teh state of VA Smalltalk: where it's at, and where it's headed. If you would rather watch the video, head on over to the STIC website.

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!

Technorati Tags: va smalltalk, smalltalk, stic12

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at some of the more interesting methods in the collection hierarchy. 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 we'll look at some of the more useful methods in the Collection class hierarchy, and use some examples to illustrate. We're using VA Smalltal, so fire that up and look at class collection:

Select the ANSI-API category, and have a look at the methods - you can count on the ones here being implemented (and implemented this way) across all the major Smalltalks. Some of the methods here are "new" - in the sense that the various vendors have only added them to their distributions in the last few years. Today we'll take a look at some of these methods:

coll1 := #(1 2 3 4 5).
coll2 := #(4 5 6 7 8).
coll3 := #(1 1 2 3 3 4 4 5).

coll1 anySatisfy: [:each | each < 10]. true
coll1 allSatisfy: [:each | each < 3]. false
coll1 noneSatisfy: [:each | each > 10]. true

coll1 intersection: coll2. Set(4 5 )

coll2 occurrencesOf: 2 0 

coll3 sorted: [:a : b | b <= a] (5 4 4 3 3 2 1 1)

The results of executing each line of code is after each line (using Display from the workspace menu). If you don't follow why, go ahead and experiment with the examples, and debug through them.

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, collection

This makes me happy - especially since I just had to re-download a bunch of large game files after a disk corruption problem

Today's Javascript 4 You adds a custom UI element to a Google map. 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:

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: javascript, map

Metacello seems to be getting more standardized - it's now moved along to Smalltalk/X

Technorati Tags: metacello

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at getting started with the VAST Goodies site (and tools). 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 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 load the support code into VA. Fortunately, that's easy - it's right in the features tool:

Simply move it over to the right and load - note that all of the pre-reqs get picked up for you:

That gets the tools in - we covered how to make use of them here

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, envy, goodies