Thursday, March 27, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
CFP - IWST 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS for the International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies 2014 in Cambridge, England; August 19, 2014
Read more.
Read more.
JNIPort for Pharo 3.0 alpha
Joachim announced JNIPort for Pharo 3.0 alpha (a bridge between Smalltalk and Java). Still slow - but already usable.
Airflowing video
Looks like Airflowing.com created a video channel on youtube. The application is written using Seaside the Smalltalk web framework:
TinyTower Assist
TinyTower Assist is an assistant program for the mobile game TinyTower, the assistant is written in Smalltalk.
Here is a video showing the Pharo based assistant in action and on Twitter there is a picture showing you how to install it from the project repository on SmalltalkHub.
Here is a video showing the Pharo based assistant in action and on Twitter there is a picture showing you how to install it from the project repository on SmalltalkHub.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Artefact PDF
Artefact (the PDF framework for Pharo Smalltalk) has a new website:
https://sites.google.com/site/artefactpdf
https://sites.google.com/site/artefactpdf
Any progress?
Found this quote on twitter:
"meanwhile Oracle is making Java slowly, slowly look more like Smalltalk. We'll probably get there by 2080"
I have a similar impression. For example in Java 8 you can now write:
compared to Smalltalk:
I think this was possible back in 1972 with Smalltalk-72 already.
"meanwhile Oracle is making Java slowly, slowly look more like Smalltalk. We'll probably get there by 2080"
I have a similar impression. For example in Java 8 you can now write:
"HelloWorld".chars().forEach(each -> System.out.println((char)each));compared to Smalltalk:
'HelloWorld' do: [:each | Transcript show: each ]I think this was possible back in 1972 with Smalltalk-72 already.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
PathObjects
There is a Squeak/Smalltalk implementation of PathObjects, a concept of interactively diagraming object interactions to assist developers in object-oriented program comprehension.
The project is using the Roassal visualization engine and the implementation is done by Leonhard Schweizer as part of a master's thesis at HPI's Software Architecture Group.
The project is on GitHub as well as on HPI's SqueakSource3 instance.
The project is using the Roassal visualization engine and the implementation is done by Leonhard Schweizer as part of a master's thesis at HPI's Software Architecture Group.
The project is on GitHub as well as on HPI's SqueakSource3 instance.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Pharo and ST books page
...based on Stef's collection of free ST books now available at http://pharo.pharocloud.com/pharobooks
Rickshaw for Seaside
Rickshaw is a JavaScript Smalltalk toolkit for creating interactive time series graphs in Seaside.
Read the announcement here or browse an online demo which provides Smalltalk examples and is based on the original example page of Rickshaw.js.
Read the announcement here or browse an online demo which provides Smalltalk examples and is based on the original example page of Rickshaw.js.
Pharo @ NDC Oslo
There will be a Pharo presentation by Tudor on the NDC Developer Festival in Oslo. Read more.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Phratch and Ubuntu
Phratch is now installable for recent Ubuntu versions. Here is the PPA (Personal package archive)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Smalltalk and Seaside usage in Startups
In 2008 there were some interesting news that a Vancouver-based startup using the Seaside Smalltalk web framework, has been bought by Live Current Media for $5 million. The Smalltalk web application "auctomatic.com" they had built was helping sellers with eBay. I also reported about this in my blog.
According to press the founders of the startup John and Patrick Collision becoming overnight millionaires (as you can also read on the wikipedia page of one of them). Here is a screenshot of the application:
Another nice Smalltalk application that was written in Seaside by a startup was dabbledb.com. It was co-developed by Avy Bryant - original creator of Seaside itself. In 2011 the company was acquired by Twitter and Avy worked for Twitter then. The website of dabbledb.com is meanwhile shut down - but there are some nice videos left on youtube showing the application in action:
Why do I tell you this - as it's nothing new that startups grow up and get successful. A big part of this are always the people behind the scenes - but often key to success is also the technology in use that enables them to meet their goals. And it is not a secret that Seaside and Smalltalk are innovation driving technologies.
Meanwhile the brothers Patrick and John Collison co-founded another company called "stripe.com". The company provides an online payment solution that allow developers to accept credit card payments online using an API. Guess who is working with them: Avy Bryant is also part of the stripe.com team.
What I found interesting is that this week I stumbled upon a Twitter post from John Collision, showing Patrick Collission demoing Pharo Smalltalk (and Seaside) to their stripe engineers.
So it looks like again there is a place for Seaside and Smalltalk (here Pharo) in this new startup. I dont know if it is used for prototyping or directly within their technology stack. But I'm sure both will drive their new business forward as they did in the past...
According to press the founders of the startup John and Patrick Collision becoming overnight millionaires (as you can also read on the wikipedia page of one of them). Here is a screenshot of the application:
Another nice Smalltalk application that was written in Seaside by a startup was dabbledb.com. It was co-developed by Avy Bryant - original creator of Seaside itself. In 2011 the company was acquired by Twitter and Avy worked for Twitter then. The website of dabbledb.com is meanwhile shut down - but there are some nice videos left on youtube showing the application in action:
Why do I tell you this - as it's nothing new that startups grow up and get successful. A big part of this are always the people behind the scenes - but often key to success is also the technology in use that enables them to meet their goals. And it is not a secret that Seaside and Smalltalk are innovation driving technologies.
Meanwhile the brothers Patrick and John Collison co-founded another company called "stripe.com". The company provides an online payment solution that allow developers to accept credit card payments online using an API. Guess who is working with them: Avy Bryant is also part of the stripe.com team.
What I found interesting is that this week I stumbled upon a Twitter post from John Collision, showing Patrick Collission demoing Pharo Smalltalk (and Seaside) to their stripe engineers.
So it looks like again there is a place for Seaside and Smalltalk (here Pharo) in this new startup. I dont know if it is used for prototyping or directly within their technology stack. But I'm sure both will drive their new business forward as they did in the past...
Thelonious
Thelonious is a Tool for automatic fault localization. Currently for Pharo 2.0, read more on the project page.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Home automation using Smalltalk
Smalltalk is used in many scenarios - so there is no surprise that it is also used for home automation.
There is a product known as VASERControl and it is written in VASmalltalk. Joachim knows more - read in his blog post here.
If you need some visual impressions look a these videos.
There is a product known as VASERControl and it is written in VASmalltalk. Joachim knows more - read in his blog post here.
If you need some visual impressions look a these videos.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Smalltalk application in chemoinformatics
Found on twitter:
Smalltalk application in chemoinformatics - RMapViewer visualizes reaction paths among isomers. Watch the videos here.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to ...
Cool - "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is being streamed by the BBC, one episode each week!
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
BabyMock 2 for Pharo 3.0
Also the 2.0 version of BabyMock version is out as of today. You can load it from the config browser in Pharo 3.0. Read more about the changes here.
CodeCity
The first version of the brand new CodeCity is out.
CodeCity is a 3D visualization engineased on a city metaphor, which enables us to depict software systems as cities - but it can also be used as a general visualization engine for any other kind of data.
Click on one of the below images to see some samples or try out yourself.
CodeCity is a 3D visualization engineased on a city metaphor, which enables us to depict software systems as cities - but it can also be used as a general visualization engine for any other kind of data.
Click on one of the below images to see some samples or try out yourself.
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RenoirSt 1.0.0 Release for Pharo 3.0
RenoirSt - a DSL enabling programmatic cascading style sheet generation for Pharo Smalltalk is now ready in version 1.0.0 and can be loaded from the config browser in Pharo 3.0.
Read the announcement, the documentation, visit the project page.
Read the announcement, the documentation, visit the project page.
Friday, March 07, 2014
HighchartsSt for Seaside
Want to do charting using Seaside? Then have a look at HighchartsSt - a Highcharts Js API wrapper for Pharo Smalltalk. Although it is still in the early steps of development, it already includes
some examples that give an idea on how to use it.
Nice!
Nice!
Mobile Smalltalk options
Maybe you already know about
All these are options for building Smalltalk apps running on a mobile device (like the nice geometry app called "DrGeo" from Hilaire Fernandes or Phratch for Android). Still these environments do not yet offer a deep integration into the mobile world and even commercial ST vendors do not yet offer an easy possibility to run ST code on mobiles.
Now David Buck is trying to fill this gap and is working on another Smalltalk VM for Android. Very interesting and I hope he makes good progress so that nice Android/iPhone apps built in Smalltalk will appear soon in appstores.
Read more about it here about it or listen to James podcast.
All these are options for building Smalltalk apps running on a mobile device (like the nice geometry app called "DrGeo" from Hilaire Fernandes or Phratch for Android). Still these environments do not yet offer a deep integration into the mobile world and even commercial ST vendors do not yet offer an easy possibility to run ST code on mobiles.
Now David Buck is trying to fill this gap and is working on another Smalltalk VM for Android. Very interesting and I hope he makes good progress so that nice Android/iPhone apps built in Smalltalk will appear soon in appstores.
Read more about it here about it or listen to James podcast.
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Renoir.St
Renois.St - a DSL enabling programmatic cascading style sheet generation for Pharo Smalltalk. Visit the project website and try out in Pharo 3.
Sunday, March 02, 2014
Controlling EV3 robots using Phratch
This is a short video about Lego EV3 Mindstorm robots being controlled by Phratch using the Jetstorm EV3 bridge
Phratch - OneClick available
Phratch is a Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) port on Pharo. It is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and more as software programming.
Now there is a one click distribution available to run it on Mac, Linux and Windows.
Now there is a one click distribution available to run it on Mac, Linux and Windows.
NativeBoost binding for SQLite3
SQLite3 is a nice small relational database. For the open source Smalltalks like Squeak and Pharo there is a long history in accessing it:
- if I remember correctly an initial wrapper for SQLite 2 came from Avi Bryant
- then a first cut on an FFI wrapper for SQLite3 was created by Claes-Fredrik Mannby
- I cleaned it up a little bit then and moved it to Metacello, it was on Squeaksource
-later I moved it to STHub and it is still usable in Pharo 3.0
Still all this was based on the usual FFI interface. FFI is still working but Pharo meanwhile has NativeBoost which allows to do external bindings.
Now Pierce Ng took action and created a NativeBoost binding for SQLite3. The project is called NBSQLite3. He blogged about it and you could load the code from ss3.
- if I remember correctly an initial wrapper for SQLite 2 came from Avi Bryant
- then a first cut on an FFI wrapper for SQLite3 was created by Claes-Fredrik Mannby
- I cleaned it up a little bit then and moved it to Metacello, it was on Squeaksource
-later I moved it to STHub and it is still usable in Pharo 3.0
Still all this was based on the usual FFI interface. FFI is still working but Pharo meanwhile has NativeBoost which allows to do external bindings.
Now Pierce Ng took action and created a NativeBoost binding for SQLite3. The project is called NBSQLite3. He blogged about it and you could load the code from ss3.