Amber in use at SmalltalkHub

http://smalltalkhub.com is not only a new website for Smalltalk. If you look at the bottom of the page you will notice that is based on Pharo, Seaside, MongoDB and also the client side Amber Smalltalk that helps running the nice looking pages.

If you have have Google Chrome just hit F12, go to the JavaScript console and evaluate:

"smalltalk.Browser._open()"

to open the Amber class browser. It is very nice to see the classes in Hub-Amber-... categories and I like how easy one can understand and encapsulate client side rendering.

Hope to find some time to dig deeper into Amber especially after Nicolas has some nice ideas to push Amber.

CogVM Object format

Guillermo explains the details of the CogVM object format in a blog post. I already mentioned Marianos blog that should also help you digging deeper in virtual machine building and related technology. Currently there is also a discussion about a new object format that Eliot want to introduce. If interested check out the vm-dev list.

Destroy all software (fun)

After watching this video I opened a Smalltalk image and tried things like "#() + #()" and the like.

Historical Documents on Smalltalk

ESUG provides a folder with historical documents on Smalltalk.

Concrete Type Inference

There is a new blog on ConcreteTypeInference in Smalltalk

Zinc Documentation

Sven provides some docu for the Zinc HTTP framework in Pharo.

Fuel Release Version 1.8 and graph visualizer

There is a new version 1.8 of Fuel available. The nice thing is that it now includes a visualizer based on Roassal.
This allows to easily debug Fuel.

Note that the repository is now moved to SqueakSource3

Squeak on top of JavaScript Linux in the web browser

Exotic but possible: Squeak virtual machine now also runs on JSLinux using the mini.image. 
JSLinux is a x86 PC emulator written in JavaScript and running in a web browser.

Here is the video and announcement from Pavel.

I expect more and more emulators running on top of JavaScript. Maybe one day it is fast enough to load and run Windows or Ubuntu on top of the JS engine right within your pc/tablet/phones web browser. Interesting times...

CodeMirror - Styling Seasides WABrowser

I wrote a simple seaside wrapper today for the CodeMirror JavaScript Editor, the code lives in

    http://ss3.gemstone.com/ss/Seaside-CodeMirror

It was actually very easy to wrap due to the new WAFileMetadataLibrary facility allowing for nested folders in latest Seaside versions.

Since this editor includes also a "Smalltalk mode" you can also use the project in combination with a simple patch changeset for WABrowser to style your web served Seaside code browser/editor:
 

PDF4Smalltalk

Christians PDF4Smalltalk library has a new home and mailinglist.

Oniguruma

Oniguruma is a regular expression library which is standard with Ruby 1.9. Now there is a binding for VisualWorks Smalltalk too.

LivelyKernel updates

LivelyKernel - ideas from Squeaks Morphic brought to the webbrowser using JavaScript. Interesting demos:

• Lively Kernel on 3D cube
• SyncMorph
• Lively Kernel 2 - Connections example
• Morph Interaction on iPad (with details here)

Check out the webpage or even try the new Lively3D

IWST 2012

The International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies for 2012 was announced.

Nagare logging library

Another new logging library or Smalltalk called Nagare is available.

Roassal visualization engine

Roassal is a new agile visualization engine. With the project you can graphically render objects using short and expressive Smalltalk expressions. It is MIT licensed and free.

Cuis Smalltalk mailinglist

There is a new mailinglist to discuss the Cuis Smalltalk system.

Try Smalltalk

Will you also try Smalltalk and rethink your views about the world of programming.

DrGeo Android release

Hilaire Fernandes made DrGeo for Android available. DrGeo is built using Pharo Smalltalk.

Timeouts in Smalltalk

Thats why I like Smalltalk (and Blocks) - powerfull and easy to understand:


[ self doSomething ]
valueWithin: 1 day
onTimeout: [ self doSomethingElse ].

STON - Smalltalk Object Notation

You may know JSON format from JavaScript - now Smalltalk has something similar. It is called STON - Smalltalk Object Notation and infos about it can be found here.