OpenQwaq in use

3D ICC is using OpenQwaq (which is based on Squeak Smalltalk) for a collaborative platform. Here is a new showcase video how Smalltalk helps to work as a team in 3D.

New Smalltalk/X version 6.2.1

There is a new version 6.2.1. from Smalltalk/X available.

RTalk on JVM Language Summit 2012

Mark Roos will present RTalk (a Smalltalk on the JVM) at the JVM Language Summit (July 30 to August 1, 2012). Mark Roos has two talks - one about RTalk and one about "invokedynamic" (a new bytecode for dynamic method invocation).


You can also watch the presentation about RTalk from last year.

MessagePack for Smalltalk

MessagePack is an efficient binary serialization format. Now there is also Smalltalk support for it.

Pharo 1.4 "Summer" released

The summer release of Pharo 1.4 is announced! 

While the community is hard working on getting 2.0 into shape this is a maintenance release for all users of Pharo 1.4 with fixes and backports.

Go and download it!  

Jejak Trace Framework

The Jejak Trace Framework - a new framework for injecting probes into (Pharo) Smalltalk methods, and record their execution. Read more.

WaveFront file importer for Pharo

Jean Baptiste Arnaud published code for a Wavefront importer (3D Object Models with *.obj extension)

Altitude - a new Smalltalk web framework

Colin Putney announced his "Altitude" web framework for Squeak Smalltalk as open source under MIT license. It's a brand-new, from-scratch HTTP server and application framework written on top of Xtreams.


One needs an up to-date 4.4. image. Code is here and Colin provided a load script.


Colin also explains the difference between Altitude and the more well known Seaside web frameowork for Smalltalk.

BOSS - robots simulation in Smalltalk

BOSS is the "binary object storage service" in VisualWorks Smalltalk. But now BOSS also depicts a project on robots simulation written in Smalltalk done at the Ecole des Mines de Douai.

They also have an own SqueakSource server.

Ludus for Amber Smalltalk

Ludus is a game framework for Amber Smalltalk (the Smalltalk on top of JavaScript). Today I checked out the Sokoban game example which is written in it.

 Again if you hit F12 in your (chrome) browser on the page go to the JavaScript console and evaluate:

 smalltalk.Browser._open()

 you can open the Smalltalk browser and dig into the code. Amber makes client side programming really easy!

Memcached

Memcached is a free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system. If you want to use it with Pharo just use the ConfigurationOfMemcached.

Raspberry pie and Scratch

The upcoming Raspberry pie user guide will include also a short intro on how to use Scratch to drive the device. It's interesting to see all these kids using Scratch now - so Smalltalk yet again helps shaping our future.

Easy setup a Pharo Smalltalk HTTP Server

Sven shows you how to download, install and run a Pharo Smalltalk HTTP Server for Linux using a single command. Read more here.

Athen progress

Athen progresses as this video shows.

Pharo 2.0 progress

If you grab the latest Pharo 2.0 version from the CI server you will see that it has some countless new features:

 - one is Spotlight search which can by accessed by hitting SHIFT + ENTER
 - another one is grouping of windows: just select "Create Windows Group" from the window menu
    (you can drag and drop for instance two browsers together to have them tab-styled in one single
     window)- this is an idea from TWM docking windows.
 - Nautilus the new code browser
 - code completion in all tools
 - some initial metacello configurations using Tools -> ConfigurationBrowser
 - Fuel is now part of Pharo
 - if you load ScriptManager from the config browser you will notice that it is
    using Fuel (since Fuel is now part of Pharo) and also allows for code completion
 - the new filesystem code is integrated
 - you can now also set the Monticello package cache directory in the settings browser to easily share
    the *.mcz package cache folder between images
 - the new Spec UI is integrated allow you to easily build tools

More things to come in the near future:
 - Zodiac (SSL support) is integrated and soon the SSL plugins will be part of the distribution
 - Freetype, Cairo Libs bundled
 - ....

There is also a new way how fixes got reviews:
 - you open a bug in the Pharo issue tracker
 - then submit a fix as a slice to the inbox
 - set the state to ReviewNeeded
 - now "Ulysse" the code monkey script checks your fix by running all tests automatically - so
   it is easy to see in advance if the fix is working or breaking the latest builds

This speeds up the integration process.

Expect more things to come ...

Join Smalltalk

Thats why I like the language: it easy, extendable and expressive:

';' join: #(1 2 3 4) returns '1;2;3;4'

and

 String lf join: #('First line' 'Second line')  returns

 'First line
Second line'

Amber news

Some Amber news from Göran. I'm very curious ...

Scratch in Debian

Scratch (which is written in Squeak Smalltalk) is now in Debian.

Braille keyboard support for Smalltalk

There is a new project for Braille keyboard support for Pharo

Lively Kernel at JSConf

Dan gave a presentation about the Lively Kernel (a Squeak Morphic inspired Live kernel written in JavaScript) at JSConf 2012. The video is now available.