SqueakGtk

SqueakGtk is an attempt to port the Gtk+ GUI to Squeak - and it looks like the project makes some progress.

Click on the image to enlarge:

VistaSmalltalk

Peter Fisk announced a demonstration of using Smalltalk classes instead of XAML to implement animations in the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). He expects Vista Smalltalk will shortly be capable of building online animated games and replacing Javascript for "Ajax" style applications.

Vista Smalltalk is built upon the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) classes and a bytecode runtime which depends only upon core WinFx classes.

14th International Smalltalk Conference 2006

The registration for International Smalltalk Conference organised by ESUG every year is now open.

The 14th International Smalltalk Conference 2006 will be held in Prague, Czech Republic.

SqueakNOS Mailinglist

There is a new mailinglist available for the Squeak NOS project.

SqueakNOS is trying to get rid of the OS under Squeak, and to implement all the operating system functionality in Smalltalk.

SqSquare collaboration software

Masashi Umezawa announced the SqSquare BETA release.

SqSquare is a new collaboration software built on Tweak. On a virtual broad desktop, you can freely add/edit objects, or even write eToys scripts. There is also a project swiki available.

SqueakNOS: A simple guide to writing HardwareDevices

The "Simple guide to writing HardwareDevices" for SqueakNOS
explains how to use Squeak Smalltalk to implement new
Hardware Devices.

Seaside, Baby dolls and high volume websites

Nevin Pratt shares some experiences about using Seaside for his web shop.

Swazoo Smalltalk web server

The Swazoo Smalltalk web server now has its own website:

http://www.swazoo.org/

Squeak NOS is back

The SqueakNOS (Squeak No Operating System) project is back.

SqueakNOS was an attempt to get Squeak running on x86 pcs without an underlying OS. The aim was to push as much of the hardware interface into the Smalltalk image as possible. There has been no progress since 2001 but now the original team is back and SqueakNOS is quite live and quite kicking!

You can either throw away your installed OS (not yet recommended ;) or use PC emulators like VMWare for a first test.

Squeak NOS is back

The SqueakNOS (Squeak No Operating System) project is back.

SqueakNOS was an attempt to get Squeak running on x86 pcs without an underlying OS. The aim was to push as much of the hardware interface into the Smalltalk image as possible. There has been no progress since 2001 but now the original team is back and SqueakNOS is quite live and quite kicking!

You can either throw away your installed OS (not yet recommended) or use PC emulators like VMWare for a first test.

SqueakNOS is back

The SqueakNOS (Squeak No Operating System) project is back.

SqueakNOS was an attempt to get Squeak running on x86 pcs without an underlying OS. The aim was to push as much of the hardware interface into the Smalltalk image as possible. There has been no progress since 2001 but now the original team is back and SqueakNOS is quite live and quite kicking!

You can either throw away your installed OS (not yet recommended) or use PC emulators like VMWare for a first test.

SqueakNOS is back

The SqueakNOS (Squeak No Operating System) project is back.

SqueakNOS was an attempt to get Squeak running on x86 pcs without an underlying OS. The aim was to push as much of the hardware interface into the Smalltalk image as possible. There has been no progress since 2001 but now the original team is back and SqueakNOS is quite live and quite kicking!

You can either throw away your installed OS (not yet recommended) or use PC emulators like VMWare for a first test.

Just 5 seconds ...

Just read about Sun finishing Java Enterprise Edition 5 on the heise newsticker (german only). One of the added user comments was:

"The Sun App server (Glassfish) really rocks. The thing is coming up in only 5 seconds together with derby and admin console. Compared to this most application servers should hide themselves ..."

That's really a huge step forward for J2EE - it should now be less painfull to always reboot the webserver after doing refactorings and program changes. ;)

I'm working with both: Java/J2EE and Smalltalk/Seaside and the situation is always the same:

I constantly see the Java world beeing happy about small things making this painfull style of development easier. Nobody asks the question if this change-compile-restart process makes sense in general!!!

On the other hand things like that have never been an issue in dynamic environments like Smalltalk. You dont have to restart the web server after large changes - even if you restructure large parts of your application framework or the web server code itself.

This is one factor why Smalltalk development makes you more productive - you can focus on solving the problem...

Comet implementation for Seaside web framework

Comet - the next web technology after AJAX allows the server to push updates to all clients (for instance web browsers) when they happen.

Diego Gomez Deck published a first implementation on SqueakMap (called Asteroid). It runs with KomHttpServer (Comanche), JSON and Seaside.

I had to patch the class FastSocketStream with a copy of SocketStream>>sendImmediatelly: to make it work in Squeak 3.8. (3.8 uses a different socket implementation and this method was unfortunately missing).

What it does:
=============
After running "ACometWidgets start" in the Squeak server image you can open more than one web browser on http://localhost:9999

You see some text fields - if you change their values the changes are sent to the server and from there dynamically pushed to the other client web browsers without having to use their "refresh" button.

By evaluating "ACometWidgets instance pushAlertHelloWorld." you get an example how to push data (in this case a java script with an alert) from the server to any connected web browser client. If you leave the Transcript open and close the browsers you will also get a notice that they disconnected.

Update:
I created a short Shockwave demo of Asteroids.

Forward to the past

For those of you who want to play with a simple Smalltalk image running on a Java VM (within a browser) try the following link:

ForwardToThePast.jnlp

Note that Java Webstart is required for your browser. Read the original announcement by Dan Ingalls. The running image is based on the mini.image from Squeak and runs slower than the C based VM but actually it works.

Interview with Dan Ingalls from ESUG 2004

Found an interview with Dan Ingalls from ESUG 2004. Scroll down for the english version. Interesting ...

New beginners squeak mailing-list

A new mailinglist for Squeak beginners has been set up. For a complete list of Squeak related mailinglists click here.

Seaside, ROR and retiring Java from the spotlight of web applications

Seaside got mentioned again in an interview with Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson to retire Java from the spotlight of web applications. To quote:

"Rails is much more traditional and familiar to most programmers. Java programmers with years of experience in J2EE can switch to Rails quickly and all they have to learn is what drudgery not to do any more.

Seaside, on the other hand, is an entirely different paradigm. It's new, fresh thinking. And for certain narrow domains it can definitely offer significant improvements over the traditional request/response model.

But I don't see it as something that's going to catch a ton of mainstream traction the way Rails has. It's simply too different for too many people. And for the "most applications most of the time" sphere, it doesn't offer enough benefits over something like Rails to be worth the mental rewrite for most people.

I certainly encourage you to take a look regardless. It'll broaden your mind."


I would not encourage you to take a look since it is true what Andy Bower once said:


"Smalltalk is dangerous. It is a drug. My advice to you would be don't try it; it could ruin your life. Once you take the time to learn it (to REALLY learn it) you will see that there is nothing out there (yet) to touch it. Of course, like all drugs, how dangerous it is depends on your character. It may be that once you've got to this stage you'll find it difficult (if not impossible) to "go back" to other languages and, if you are forced to, you might become an embittered character constantly muttering ascerbic comments under your breath. Who knows, you may even have to quit the software industry altogether because nothing else lives up to your new expectations."

Seaside at Dr. Dobbs

A first article on Avi's talk about Seaside can be found at Dr. Dobbs.

Smalltalk free lectures repository

As announced by Stêphane:

The European Smalltalk User Group ESUG (www.esug.org) hosts a new server to collect all your free Smalltalk lectures and videos:

If you want to share with others your lectures, please visit http://smalltalkteaching.esug.org/

Seaside and Exupery Videos

There are two new videos available:

• Exupery video from Brussels (560MB)

If you want to learn about the progress of the Exupery project for Squeak
you should definitely download this video.

• Seaside talk from 22C3 (350MB)

A short introduction into the Seaside web framework.

Smalltalk Solutions Pictures

Adriaan van Os announced first pictures from Smalltalk Solutions 2006 in Toronto

Croquet SDK 1.0 available

The Croquet SDK 1.0 is now available at: http://www.opencroquet.org

Seachart

A new live demo of SeaChart is available at seachart.seasidehosting.st.

SeaChart components are standard Seaside web components that you can easily embed into your Smalltalk web application. Demos include PlotKit
CSS Bar Graph, Numberd List, Star Rater, Fade In and Cross Fade.

You can also download the code from SqueakSource.

Also have a look at scriptaculous.seasidehosting.st for more free Seaside components.

Croquet on Wikipedia

There is a new wikipedia page describing the Croquet System and project.

Also the hedgehog release of the Croquet SDK (Version 1.0) is imminent.

Smalltalk Party in Cagliari, Italy

A new Smalltalk party in Cagliari, Italy will start on July 1st 2006.

Back from New Zealand

After 3 and a half week in New Zealand my wife and I arrived back in germany. It was our second trip to NZ and it was really amazing. I really like the country. This time we concentrated on the North Island and made a trip to White Island. We also saw some Wallabies and a wide range of birdlife.

Our tour in short:
- Auckland (City of Sails)
- Northland with Cape Reinga
- Coromandel
- Bay of Plenty
- Rotorua and Lake Taupo
- Tongariro National Park with its active volcanoes
- New Plymouth with Mt. Taranaki

7 Minute Apps

There is a new demo video online about DabbleDB (which is written in Seaside using Squeak Smalltalk).

Just click here to view or download the movie directly (14MB, Quicktime required).

About GemStone

Michael Roberts describes some nice features of the GemStone Smalltalk object database. Again we have a nice example for the power of dynamic systems ...

DabbleDB article on techcrunch.com

Smalltalk is getting more and more attention with DabbleDB
(which is written in Squeak using the Seaside web framework).

Read the next article about it.

Script.aculo.us and Seaside

A new website shows Seaside combined with the script.aculo.us Javascript library:

http://scriptaculous.seasidehosting.st

Beyond Java Buzz

javazoid.com is mentioning Seaside in "Beyond Java Buzz". What I dont understand is that people complain about Java and start with Ruby right after it.

What if they would take the next step and directly start using Smalltalk. I'm sure they will enjoy the wonderfull world full of objects.

Seaside Hosting

netstyle.ch and ESUG announced a new website:

http://www.seasidehosting.st

where you can host your seaside image(s). It's free - anything you need is Squeak and Seaside.

More fun with VMs

Looks like Dan Ingalls is working on a Squeak on top of Java.

Smalltalk Central

There is a new website called http://www.smalltalk-central.com online

New Smalltalk Book in Spanish

Diego Gomez Deck announced a new book about Squeak. It is written in spanish.



You can download the PDF here.

Squeak and Robots

Jon Hylands (from www.huv.com) posted some new informations about his autonomous controller. The software is written in Squeak Smalltalk.

Click on the images to enlarge and read more on his website.

 

3+4 visualized

Craig has visualized his smallest image snapshot so far (1,337 bytes).

Cincom Smalltalk Winter Edition

From James Robertsons blog: "Cincom Smalltalk™ Winter Edition is Now Available"

Intelli-Dolphin1.1

Remember the discussion about Smalltalk IDE's and possible problems in Dolphins autocomplete package some days ago?

Meanwhile Tim has announced a new and powerfull auto completion package. Have a look at the flash demo or download the code right here.

Will the future start to happen ...

There is a new webcast presentation available on Croquet technology build in Squeak Smalltalk. I'm not sure which impact this technology will have on computing in the next years but I think it would be wise for many companies to have a look at it before their competitors do...

Today's (Smalltalk) IDE's Part II

The discussion about the power of Smalltalk IDE's continues. Some comments again:

Looks like Talios only accepts an IDE as powerfull if it supports auto completion. Dolphin Smalltalk may have some problems here. But why generalize then?

The eCompletion (Eclipse style completion) package from Squeak works quite nicely and only shows the appropriate selectors:



But there are cases where auto completion is not able to quess the type of an object (for instance when you play with reflection).

I dont claim Smalltalk IDE's to be the holy grail, but compared to other IDE's they are flexible and open. If it doesnt work in Dolphin you can change the auto completion very easily. Ever tried to change the auto completion of VisualStudio? ;)

Squeak is on fire

Cees has set up a build bot for Squeak 3.9alpha on his website. Read his blog why Squeak is on fire or have a look at his posting to the Squeak mailing list to get more infos.

Today's (Smalltalk) IDE's

I'm not sure why Cedric Beust (whoever this guy is) should be one of the forward thinkers in the Java community when he says something like this in an interview:

"A lot of veteran developers point out that Smalltalk showed that it was possible to have such an IDE in a dynamic language, but they are only partially right. Today's IDE's are doing much more than anything Smalltalk's environment ever did, so the problem is still wide open (and maybe impossible to solve)."

I used/use both: Smalltalk IDE's and Eclipse/VisualStudio like IDE's - also wrote plugins/goodies/tools for both (including an own standalone IDE). So I know what I'm talking about and have to disagree:

Today's IDE's are doing nothing more than Smalltalk IDE's in the past and present and will never be able to do more than a Smalltalk IDE in the future!

You ask why? Here is my answer:

One can easily build tools in a Smalltalk IDE without spending much time or relying on a predefined plugin architecture. That's why so many features in 'modern' IDE's have their history in Smalltalk. You can also modify the predefined Smalltalk tools to suit your needs since they come with full source code and are easily changeable.
(Ever tried to fix a bug in an Eclipse core package or plugin and you know what I'm talking about)

If there is no predefined Smalltalk tool for your task you can also write a simple script and run it. An example? Let's delete all (S)Unit test cases currently implemented using a single line of code:

TestCase allInstances do: [:each | each removeFromSystem]

Or maybe you need some statistics for your boss: let's count the number of SUnit test case classes in the system:

TestCase allSubclasses size

You can easily access the compiler:

Compiler evaluate: '3 + 4'

or directly evalute your code in a workspace.

Another example: you want to know how long a particular action or piece of code will take, so just write a profiler script or add the profiler into the particular method:

TimeProfiler profile: [self myLongRunningAction]

Next example: we want to watch an object. So just send

anObject inspect

to open an inspector showing the object and it's structure. We can also open a browser on the object's class by sending

anObject class browse

browsing the behavior and send new messages after that.

Try to do all this in VisualStudio or Eclipse. Even with additional script support added by the vendor/community you will never get the flexibilty of a Smalltalk IDE where you can access anything, including your projects, packages, classes, methods, files and not to forget the language itself. Other scriptable IDE's are mostly limited to predefined objects exposed by the IDE.

And you dont need to know a different scripting language with a different syntax. In a Smalltalk IDE you can use one simple and powerfull language to develop your program, enhance the IDE with tools, build your program and packages and deploy it, ...

So additional stuff like plugin architectures, build systems based on XML (Ant), setup managers, ... are not necessary in Smalltalk. Just use Smalltalk.

In a Smalltalk system there is also no difference between the IDE and the developed application. Typically you throw the IDE out of the image (where any object lives in) before delivering the application. Sometimes an IDE tool is also usefull for the end user of your application so you just leave it there. If you want you can leave the debugger or the whole IDE tools in the deployed application. So you can track problems happening only on the customer side, directly fix them in the debugger and continue running the application...

To transform this example into the java world: try to build and deliver an Eclipse RCP application with the java debugger included, fixing a bug and continue without restarting ...

This is mostly the problem developers from traditionall IDE's face when working with a Smalltalk IDE for the first time. They are too much bound to code in files, IDE tools like a compiler or a debugger as separate application, ...

Maybe some of the Smalltalk IDE's have to catch up with a better look or provide some newbee wizards and templates found in other commercial IDE's. Maybe then people like Cedric Beust will accept to work with them and learn about the power of Smalltalk.

Cees also wonders why anyone is wasting time interviewing this Cedric Beust.

SqueakSource Server image

I managed to build a working SqueakSource server image using the instructions from http://source.squeakfoundation.org.

With this predefined image you are able to run an own local SqueakSource repository server very easily.

Cees De Groot will host the image and put a download link onto the project page tomorrow. Here is a short preview of the image and the server running on localhost:





Many thanks to Doug Way for the instructions, the SqueakSource authors for this nice piece of Software, Cees for hosting and others who helped to make it available.

ComSwiki 1.5

Jochen "Jeff" Rick (J77) has announced a new version of ComSwiki (codename "One Of These Days").

The new release includes AniAniWeb - a personal home page system.

SqueakMap 2.1

Göran has announced the new version 2.1 of SqueakMap.

The SqueakMap website is now also available at http://map.squeak.org

Smalltalk Gathering in Paris

The french Smalltalk community organize a Smalltalk Party in Paris. Read more here.

Smalltalk Gathering in Bern

Ian reports about the Smalltalk Gathering in Bern.

Dolphin Smalltalk X6 released

ObjectArts has released Dolphin X6.

squeakvm.org

The Squeak VM Source is now accessible on http://squeakvm.org.

Techo with Shout

Found a nice tool on SqueakMap today. It is called "Techo" - something like
a multi notepad. Many thanks to Takashi Yamamiya for implementing this little tool.

Since I want to use it as a workspace script manager I created a "Shout" and "eCompletion"
aware version of it to support Smalltalk syntax highlighting.

To install in Squeak 3.8#6665 using the SM Package loader:

- install "Shout" version 4 (may already be installed)
- install "ShoutWorkspace" version 2
- install "eCompletion" version 2.0b2
- install "TechoShout" version 1

Open Techo using 'open' in the world menu or evaluate "Techo open".

Now you can create workspace scripts. Note that Techo used the first line
as the name for the script - so I typically write the scripts using a first line comment:

"001 - Open a new Techo"
Techo open.

Seaside PR

Bruce Tate, author of three best-selling Java books comments on Seaside in his latest article.

Also the latest Weekly Squeak issue includes an interview with Bruce and Avi (author of the seaside framework) explains the history of Seaside.

Smalltalk next door

Dont know where to find the Smalltalker next door or
Squeakers in the neighbourhood - so have a look at frappr.com.

Exupery

Exupery is a compiler written in Squeak Smalltalk that compiles bytecodes to machine code. You can read more about it on the Squeak swiki.

There is also a new gmane interface to the Exupery mailinglist.

NaDa

... just installed "NaDa" - what a beautifull piece of software. Runs on every platform!

Squeakware

Squeakware is a compact, customizable Squeak-built-in Linux. It's based on "Slax Linux". Click on the images to enlarge:

 

Reimplementing Eclipse?

If they really want to bring more Smalltalk experience into Eclipse I would vote for reimplementing it using a pure and dynamic OO language. ;)

Maybe they should have a look at Squeak - it's open source, not controlled by vendors and it's community is growing fast.

Seaside in O'Reilly article

Seaside (the Smalltalk web framework based on Squeak) is mentioned in an O'Reilly article:

"Web programming is an absolute disaster. After ten years of Java programming, we still haven't built a framework to get the Back button right. Web applications are stateless, so web applications scale better. But stateless applications are hard to build, and our frameworks do not give us much help. With most Java web frameworks, you basically build many unrelated pieces of the application using servlets or JSP, and then wire them together by manually saving objects that you need in temporary storage objects called sessions."

...

"Continuation-based web frameworks generally make web development much easier by simulating a stateful application."

...

"The best continuation-based frameworks are developed in dynamic languages. By far, the most robust is Seaside. It's a framework based on Squeak, a Smalltalk dialect. Seaside features fantastic debugging support--you can actually inspect, debug, and change your code from a browser"

I also like the Conclusion:

"In Beyond Java, I make the case that Java's not dead yet, but for the first time in nearly a decade, we're seeing compelling innovation happen beyond the borders of Java. These four technologies will play an important role in the near future. Watch them closely."

But I would not totally agree: in Smalltalk innovation happens all the time!

Squeak News Mailinglist

A new mailinglist for News around the Squeak Smalltalk system is now up and running.

Yet another frustrated developer...

Currently Java (especially J2EE) is getting too complex and this will frustrate more and more developers.

It is true that compared to Java you are much more productive - but Smalltalk is still the winner for developer productivity. It is also much easier to use - if you are willing to think in plain objects and messages. So leave the curly braces behind you and start by reading one of the free Smalltalk books.

Squeak homepage

The new Squeak homepage is up and running. Visit http://www.squeak.org and read more. It is based on SmallWiki.

Reinventing Smalltalk, one decade at a time

An interesting presentation from Sam Ruby:

"Reinventing Smalltalk, one decade at a time"

Videos on seaside

Stephane Ducasse did some videos on Seaside (a Smalltalk web framework).

VA Smalltalk 7.0

The Windows download for VA Smalltalk 7.0 (VAST) is available here. Downloads for Linux, AIX and Solaris will be available soon.

VA Smalltalk is the former VisualAge for Smalltalk product from IBM. The product development and support is now done by Instantiations - and I'm sure this will help moving the product and customers forward.

Susie - Smalltalk scripting

Susie is an attempt to provide a light weight scripting engine using Smalltalk as the language. it is based on
PublicDomainSmallTalk, which in turn is based on LittleSmalltalk.

SqueakFest 05

SqueakFest 05 has come to a successfull conclusion. Alans Keynote is also available online.

Cloth again

Orion Elenzil put together a nice Croquet demo.
Read more here. He also points to a silly flash file called the "Falling Woman demo". If you ever wanted to know the difference between Vernet integration and Euler read about his first demo.

Seaside Presentation Movie

Avi Bryant presented his "Seaside" web framework to the Vancouver LISP User Group. You read about the presentation and download the movie (~250 MB) here.

Squeak and Smalltalk related videos

ESUG (European Smalltalk Usergroup) announced the following videos available at Google Video:

What is Squeak? (Alan Kay)
http://tinyurl.com/a53zm

Squeak and Croquet Demo Etech03 (Alan Kay and David A. Smith)
http://tinyurl.com/bywxe

Croquet: A Collaboration Architecture (Alan Kay and David A. Smith)
http://tinyurl.com/cgcms

The Computer Revolution hasn't happend yet. Keynote OOPSLA 1997 (Alan
Kay)
http://tinyurl.com/9vgdl

Beyond VI -- Talk from euroko03 (Marcus Denker)
http://tinyurl.com/dczzt

Alan Kay: Education in the Digital Age
http://tinyurl.com/8trwq

Alan Kay: Graphical User Interfaces
http://tinyurl.com/daocv

Bytecode-to-bytecode adaptive optimization for Smalltalk (Eliot Miranda)
http://tinyurl.com/dparf

Dan Ingalls: Object-Oriented Programming
http://tinyurl.com/784jk

Alan Kay: Doing with Images Makes Symbols
http://tinyurl.com/cpgjz

Self; The Video
http://tinyurl.com/8q6ku

Doug Engelbart: The Demo
http://tinyurl.com/d9r9w

Writing customized UI's using Morphic

Had a little bit time this evening. Not enough to do anything serious with Smalltalk - but enough to answer a question on the Squeak mailing list by writing a simplified "Handy Simulator". It's only behavior is to switch the screen on and off by using the power button.

It's a nice example of using morphic to build a customized user interface. The package is registered on SqueakSource and can directly be loaded into squeak using the SqueakMap package browser.

Free OmniBase

Looks like the OmniBase Object Database for Smalltalk is now free. The download page includes:

"OmniBase is available for free for commercial and educational purposes. Free version of OmniBase is prohibited to be used in the oil or military industries."

There are versions for several Smalltalk dialects: Squeak, Dolphin, VisualWorks, VisualAge and ST/X.

VAST7 RC1

Eric mentioned that the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of the Windows Version of VA Smalltalk 7 is available on the Instantiations website.

Bicephale project

Michal announced the first version of his "Bicephale project" which tries to change Seaside to make it handle elegantly the display of static, long-lived objects.

Note that it is early code - but since the package contains no modification to base Seaside classes it should be harmless to install it into your Seaside image.

Interim Pollock Release

Samuel S. Shuster has published an interim version of Pollock to the Cincom Public Repository. Pollock is the new GUI framework for VisualWorks Smalltalk.
Read more in the newsgroup or on his blog.

3D Browser

I've created a small flash tutorial last week and sent it to the editors of Bitwise Magazine. If you want to know how to create a 3D browser in Squeak Smalltalk then read here.

Many thanks to Huw Collingbourne for making it available.

STS2005 Trip Report

The trip report for Smalltalk Solutions 2005 is online available.

Planet Squeak

Simon Michael has set up an experimental "planet" site for Squeak. "planet" sites are RSS feed aggregators. Actually there are 3 aggregators at the moment:

http://squeak.joyful.com/planetsqueak
http://squeak.joyful.com/planetsqueak2
http://squeak.joyful.com/planetsqueakarchive

Why an image is helpfull for development

There is a discussion about Ruby vs. Smalltalk and file based development vs. image based development. I could'nt resist to add my 2 cents.

Another Dolphin Smalltalk game

Paolo from Italy has created a sudoku game with the free Dolphin Smalltalk version from the lates Bitwise magazin issue.

Free Dolphin Smalltalk

The issue #3 of the Bitwise magazine (http://www.bitwisemag.com) provides a free download of Dolphin Smalltalk. So you can follow the step by step tutorial and jump on the Smalltalk bandwagon...

Dalektron Smalltalk Game Website

Andy from Object-Arts announced a new website for the Dalektron game. The game is written in Dolphin Smalltalk.

Generating CS Papers ...

ohhh - what a usefull tool! There is a computer science paper generator online available. So some authors dont have to waste their time writing papers before creating presentations like

• "From Brain to {Your favourite technology}"
  
• "Migrating apples to oranges"
  
• "Waste you time with the next framework"
  
• "My theory is better than yours"
  
• "How to stay in business with free software"
  
• "How to build hello world with 39 screenshots"
  
• ...
  

Collogia and Cincom Smalltalk

The german Collogia AG has announced a new product "CollPhir ZWK" created with Cincom Smalltalk for pension management.

Read the press material (german only).
Looks like most of their products are Visual Works based. At least one can guess that from the available screenshots in the info material.

Smalltalk is easier ... even in school

Found this picture on a friends website.



Yes: life was hard for me too when I was a little boy in primary (C++) school. Later in higher Smalltalk education the program was much easier to write and understand:

500 timesRepeat: [Transcript show: 'I will not throw paper airplanes in class.']

Chronos Date/Time Library

The Chronos Date/Time Library is reusable code library written in Smalltalk for the creation of and computations with date and time values. It's available at http://chronos-st.org. Note that the license says: "Porting Chronos to non-Smalltalk programming languages is strictly prohibited." - so it's Smalltalk only.

GPS in Squeak

Diego Gomez Deck announced a preliminary version of GPS support for Squeak.

Live Shore Components demo

The shore components demo (a component library for seaside) is now running live on the seaside website. Just point your browser to http://shorecomponents.seaside.st. The demo includes some of my seaside examples (SVG, file download, embedded browser and web tree)



Since the project is hosted on SqueakSource I hope that others will contribute some components too.

DALEKTRON Game in Smalltalk

Andy Bower created a game together with his eldest son James, before the spectres of the curly braces get hold of him.

Read more here, download the game or click on one of the screenshots below.

    

The future reinvented with Open Croquet

... is an article by Dafydd Rees.

Croquet, Annotations, and all that jazz

More pictures from Croquet, read more here.

A talk on the Seaside ...

Avi Bryant will be speaking in London about Seaside on the evening of Tuesday the 19th of July at the Old Bank of England. Read more here.

Component library for Seaside

Jan B. Krejčí announced a new project called "Shore Components" - a component library for the Seaside web framework.



It is hosted on SqueakSource, so you can add the following HTTP based Monticello repository to your Squeak image and load it:


MCHttpRepository
location: 'http://www.squeaksource.com/ShoreComponents'
user: ''
password: ''

After running "WAKom startOn: 9092" point you browser to http://localhost:9092/seaside/ShoreDemo1

Smalltalk Tutorial for Beginners Part 2

The online magazine BitwiseMag.com has published the second issue including the second part of the Smalltalk Tutorial.