Scratch port for Pharo

Looks like Scratch gets ported to Pharo: at least there is a project on Squeaksource. After loading and running "ScratchFrameMorph open" you get the basic UI of scratch. Nice.

SqueakSource3 Alpha Site online

Dale announced a new SqueakSource3 site. Note that this is for testing only and be aware that the repository will be refreshed at the end of the Alpha period.

Fuel in SandstoneDB

Ramon now included Fuel into SandstoneDB. Here is the comment from "SandstoneDb-RamonLeon.141.mcz":

Introduced a dependency on the Fuel serializer. You can load it first with...

Gofer new
squeaksource: 'Fuel';
package: 'ConfigurationOfFuel';
load.
((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfFuel) project latestVersion) load: #(Core Tests Benchmarks).

It's smoking fast compared to SmartRefStreams. A 200 object commit with SmartRefStream on test machine takes around 2.2 seconds, .41 seconds with Fuel.

Passes all tests. SmartRefStream is still the default for now so loading this won't change anything or corrupt existing databases. To set fuel as the default serializer evaluate...

SDFileStore serializer: SDFuelSerializer new.

This will of course invalidate any existing db based on SmartRefStreams. To migrate, simply resave all of your objects. This would require grabbing all objects first into some temp arrays, changing the serializer, then calling save on all objects.

So startup Pharo and try it out.

Modern UIs

Just read an article about the Language Workbench Competition 2011. There the MetaEdit+ tool was demonstrated and highly praised. According to this article by Cincom the tool is implemented using Cincom Smalltalk. Looks like the tool really rocks:

Steven Kelly demonstrated the MetaEdit+ implementation of the assignment. In fact, he implemented most of the assignment from scratch during his demonstration! Very impressive and the only one who did it this way. For me, this shows the productivity and ease of use of MetaEdit+.

But yet again someone complained about the old-style UI:

The main comment on twitter about MetaEdit+ was that its UI looks a bit old-fashioned. That's of course a matter of taste, but their next version (5.0 - to be released soon) will have a new, Windows 7 looking UI.

So the next version will have a Windows7 UI. CST catches up with current trends - good.

But the question to me still is what is next step in UI development? Is it really worth to following UI design of the native platform.

Or should we focus on the nice things that can be done in browsers and other rich clients today? Or should we focus on 3D Smalltalk?

If I look at all these new devices and apps then I think an application that looks "modern" should at least support graphics and animation. Mhhh ... time to look at morphic again?

What is the (Smalltalk) application with the most "fashionable" UI?

More notes on JavaFX2.0

Oracle did a really good job on JavaFX 2.0 - there is now a webbrowser component included (based on WebKit). This is very usefull since you can implement a part of your application in HTML/JavaScript. This brings RichClient apps and WebApps closer together.

Think of a rich client app where you want to display a google map or use a jquery library to display charts, integrate sites like facebook, google, ...
You can decide if you implement/reuse a widget/webapp in HTML or implement it in Java(FX).

It is even possible to call JavaScript embedded in the displayed website or handle events from the website (get a callback from JavaScript). Note that WebKit already supports HTML5.

I remember an example in Smalltalk/MT where it was possible to get a callback into Smalltalk on events generated from the scripting engine in Internet Explorer. So a Smalltalk window was able to display a webpage by embedding IE and when you clicked in the webpage you could handle this in your Smalltalk app.
But it was only possible with deep knowledge of IE and its COM interfaces.

JavaFX also provides Swing Interoperability - so you can use existing Swing widgets or integrate a JavaFX stage/scene into your Swing app. You can also style your app using CSS similar to a webpage. You can run a JavaFX app easily as applet, webstart or local application. It is very deployment friendly and you can even develop apps that run on a TV. Let's see if it will also have a future on mobile devices/platforms. Yes - JavaFX is really nice and opens new opportunities.

But still ... with Java you have the compile-run-check cycle and you waste a lot of your development time compared to more productive languages like Smalltalk where you dynamically interact with objects and code. Maybe all these nice UI features like CSS skinning, embedded web browser, animation framework, visual effects ... should be added to platforms like Squeak or Pharo too ;)

JavaFX Beta

Tried the new JavaFX beta 2.0 ... looks good so far. Some small graphic errors on my machine ... but could be nice to build visually attractive rich client apps.

Lets see how easy it will be to use Java now instead of the former JavaFX scripting language...

Learning EToys

Want to learn about the eToys system in Squeak. There are nice screencasts available on the Waveplace website.

On top of ...

As I said in my post on JTalk it is very easy to run the Rhino JavaScript Engine from Java and therefore should be easy to load JTalk to run this Smalltalk implementation on the JVM.

Stefan picked up the idea and tried it with the following snippet:

ScriptEngineManager factory = new ScriptEngineManager();
ScriptEngine engine = factory.getEngineByName("JavaScript");
engine.eval("var CanvasRenderingContext2D = false;");
engine.eval(new java.io.FileReader("jtalk.js"));
engine.eval(new java.io.FileReader("init.js"));
engine.eval("println(smalltalk.Date._today())");

He did more experiments to make sure calling Java-Classes from JTalk-Smalltalk is possible too.

Today Stefan left a comment on my blog post on "JTalk and JSTalk". He announced that the execution of smalltalk-code on the server-side via Rhino is possible. Details on the remote runner and how you can save your Smalltalk Code to a DB can be found on his blog.

So given enough time (and money) it should be possible to build a Smalltalk IDE using Javas Swing UI library or a Seaside server running on top of Glassfish/JBoss/WebSphere/Weblogic/Geronimo/... app servers, ...

I still doubt that performance would be good. It would make more sense to run it on Googles new Native client.

However - JTalk on Rhino is a nice way to experiment with Smalltalk on top of JavaScript on top of JVM on top of...

Background Changer

Daniel Galdames G. created a background changer for Pharo. Just evaluate

Gofer new
  url: 'http://lemuus.homelinux.org/lemuus/BackgroundChanger';
  package: 'BackgroundChanger';
  load.

World menu->System->Change Background

Now select a directory with images. Nice.

Dr. Geo Release 11.06

There is a new release of Dr.Geo - an app built with Pharo Smalltalk.

Need Fuel

Fuel - a new project to implement binary object serialization for Pharo is part of the ESUG SummerTalk. It's work in progress but already usable, there is a ConfigurationOfFuel metacello config to easily load it.

Read about the details here or on the project website. The Source code can be found on squeaksource.com, there is also an issue tracker. According to the benchmarks its faster than SmartRefStream.

It is very easy to serialize and materialize (deserialize) an object, you can store blocks (that get evaluated when loaded again) and Fuel takes care to keep global instances like Transcript.

| sourceArray loadedArray |
sourceArray := Array 
  with: 'HelloWorld' 
  with: Transcript
                with: [ Transcript show: 'a string' ]. 
"Store to the file"
FLSerializer serialize: sourceArray toFileNamed: 'example.fl'. 
"Load from the file"
loadedArray := FLMaterializer materializeFromFileNamed: 'example.fl'. 

Bytecodes explained

You want to know more about how the virtual machine of Pharo works? Then go to Marianos blog - this time he gives an introduction on Smalltalk bytecodes.

Ephemerons for Cog

Igor implemented Ephemerons for Cog and Eliot explains why they are usefull. You can also read a paper on this topic.

Talk about Pharo's Future

James talks to Stef about Pharo's Future. Listen here.

PC Emulator in JavaScript

Nice: a PC emulator in JavaScript to run Linux. Read more or try in your browser.

EyeSee

Need some easy visualizations in your application written in Pharo?
Then check out EyeSee:

Gofer it
squeaksource: 'EyeSee';
package: 'ConfigurationOfEyeSee';
load.
(Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfEyeSee) loadDefault

It is easy to create diagrams with it. Check out the examples in class "ESExamples".

I tried it in Pharo 1.2 - some examples were broken since the class Circle was removed. This is currently discussed on pharo-list. However - it's easy to fix.

Next time I need some visualizations I use Pharo instead of Excel ;)

News on JRockit

JRockit (a fast JavaVM similar to Hotspot) is now free and available on Oracles Tech net. Nice!

Video on Cuis and Morphic3

There is a new video available about Cuis (a Squeak fork) and Juans Morphic 3 implementation.

ESUG: registration is open

via Joachim: ESUG 2011 registration is open.

Learn Smalltalk with ProfStef

Thanks to James Pharocasts now includes a screencast on using ProfStef to learn Smalltalk.

BSUG Meeting

The Belgian Smalltalk User Group (BSUG) is organising its next meeting on Tuesday May 31. Read more.

SmallHarbour project

With the support of ESUG there is a new ESUG SummerTalk 2011 project called SmallHarbour. It wants to provide a simple platform to host smalltalk web applications (similar to seasidehosting.st but also for commercial projects.

Read the announcement here and follow progress at www.smallharbour.org.

DabbleDB shuts down

The Dabble DB service shuts down on May 18, 2011
Time to rescue your data...

Moose Suite 4.4 is out

Tudor announced the new Moose Suite in version 4.4. Read more.

25 $ Computer

Remember the 100$ Laptop. Now there is a cheaper alternative: 25$/£15/17,5€ for a Computer.

Nautilus Preview

Nautilus is a new implementation of a Smalltalk browser for Pharo with support for groups, packages (using the new RPackage stuff from Pharo task force), declarative menus, ...

You try it in the latest update of Pharo core 1.3 image. Read here.

JQueryWidgetBox ported to VA

Looks like Sebastian Heidbrink ported the JQueryWidgetBox project for Seaside to VA Smalltalk and uploaded it to VASTGoodies.com.

I started the JQueryWidgetBox project in November 2009 and meanwhile various people contributed wrappers for seaside widgets to it.

Code is MIT, initially I thought about a different license model: everytime one uses the project in a production environment a new widget has to be contributed back to the project. ;)

There are so many good jquery plugins available that could be wrapped for seaside and make the web apps look much nicer. Feel free to help.

I hope that this new port will also help the project to grow...

Squeak forks

Pharo once forked from Squeak ... some people were happy, others angry. And there were IMHO unnecessary posts like this. However - Squeak is still alive and growing. As well as any of its forks.

Pharo and Squeak play nicely next to each other and both communities not only share history and virtual machine but also members and code/fixes.

Pharo took away the pressure from Squeak to be more like other Smalltalk IDEs. Squeak could continue to be the media and etoy Smalltalk. It's still the best environment to experiment with computing ideas.

And we can now use Pharo to introduce business people to (open source) Smalltalk as these two new indendent posts again prove: read here and here.

So IMHO I think it was a good step, especially since other forks like Cuis started to explorer new areas too. There are also other nice forks like the Squeak NOS project or the Croquet/OpenCobalt story with Krestianstvo and the new OpenQwaq. Cool!

I started with Squeak in version 1.0, right after Andreas created a VM port for Windows and helped to move it forward with code and words. Currently I concentrate on Pharo, otherwise I would be lost in all these nice projects. But I follow all the Squeak forks very closely.

It is really exciting to see all these different faces of Squeak and Smalltalk in general.

Squeak VM port to Google Native Client

Yoshiki Ohshima started a Squeak VM port to Google Native Client.
If you work with latest beta of Googles Chrome browser you can try it yourself.

Native client is a technology where native code (subset of Intel x86) could be run from a web browser within a sandbox.

PHANtom - aspect language for Pharo

A modern aspect language for Pharo was announced today.

DNU in JTalk

JTalk now handles #doesNotUnderstand:

OpenQwaq available

Teleplace today announced OpenQwaq, a major open source initiative for collaboration based on Squeak Smalltalk. To quote:


The OpenQwaq project is based on the commercial software that Teleplace has been delivering to the market over the past four years. It is a highly-secure, enterprise-class virtual collaboration platform that has been used by large commercial enterprises and federal agencies. The OpenQwaq project enables organizations - large and small, profit and not-for-profit - to implement virtual workspaces for their specific needs.

OpenQwaq is released under the GPL v2 license and is available for download immediately at http://code.google.com/p/openqwaq

Some more infos here and here.

Sacred ANSI standard

Follow Smalltalk ANSI standard ... or intuition. An interesting issue in the context of Pharo.

Morphic performance

Ben Coman has some nice posts on Morphic performance testing.

Squeakfest 2011

The 8th Annual Squeakfest will be held from May, 26 - May, 28 2011 at Universidad Católica in Montevideo, Uruguay. See

http://squeakfest.org

The theme for this year's conference will be "How and why to use Etoys in the education".

ConfigurationOfMagma for Pharo

If you want to work with the Magma OO-database in Pharo you should check out the updated ConfigurationOfMagma.

Scratch Day worldwide

May 21st 2011 is Scratch Day worldwide, see http://day.scratch.mit.edu

Scratch is is very nice very visual language in order to do animation and control also embedded systems. It is written in Squeak Smalltalk.

No time ...

Just read a blog post from Joachim on Checking of Runtime Dependencies. This article points to an article by Sebastian Kübeck which has interesting definition of the "I Don't have Time for That Developer". To quote:


I am sure you know those developers who respond to all suggestions for improving their situation with the same answer: "I don't have time for that". In the past, I called them hard-working developers and I even admired them a little for their patience with which they stumble over the same problems over and over again. In the meantime, I lost that admiration and I see those folks as what they really are: People that act like dogs who are busy chasing their own tails...


I think that is the reason why I like Smalltalk so much ... you can constantly improve your situation as a developer by improving anything within the system: starting from the language, the tools up to config management and deployment very easily.

SqueakSource3 Beta.1 "Easter Fire"

Tobias Pape announced SqueakSource3 Beta.1 called "Easter Fire" - a port of SqueakSource to Seaside 3 and Magritte 2. SqueakSource is a monticello code repository server which hosts your Smalltalk projects.

The SqueakSource3 code is based on the original SqueakSource source code which is used to run squeaksource.com

You can simply load it into Gemstone, Squeak or Pharo using the provided ConfigurationOfSqueakSource. You should load Seaside 3.0 first.

I tested it on latest Pharo 1.2.1:

Gofer new
squeaksource: 'MetacelloRepository';
package: 'ConfigurationOfSeaside30';
load.

((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfSeaside30) project latestVersion) load.

Gofer new
squeaksource: 'MetacelloRepository';
package: 'ConfigurationOfSqueakSource';
load.

((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfSqueakSource) project version: #easterFire) load.

Then start a new seaside adaptor (for instance comanche) using the seaside control panel (available from the world menu) and point your browser to http://localhost:8080/installSS

If you accept the default parameters there you should have a new instance running on http://localhost:8080/ss

Pharo web documentation tool

Camillo Bruni worked a bit on a pharo web documentation tool using Seaside. It's a derivate of ruby's yardoc.

You can download a test image and try it yourself.

Glamour chapter updated

The chapter on "Glamour" was updated in the Moose book. So if you want to use this framework to easily build browsers then go and have a look.

Smalltalk Hub

A first public demo for Smalltalk Hub is now available online, only use it for testing purposes. In the future this could be a nice replacement for Squeaksource.

Read the announcement.

It was written by ObjectFusion using the Iliad web framework and still a work in progress. The project is sponsored by ESUG.

Some of the features:
- works with Monticello files similar to squeaksource
- cool code browser and syntax highlighting for code
- includes issue tracking out of the box
- ...

But many things are missing:
- security
- ssh
- client-side scripting features
- ...

So far it is an alpha demo - although a very promising one.

Squeak for Android news

Dimitry Golubovsky has reached another milestone on the Squeak Port for Android Tablets. Read more in his announcement or on the test drive page.

Magma 1.2

Chris announced a new version of his Magma database. Magma 1.2 is running on Squeak 4.2, Pharo 1.1 and Pharo 1.2.

Test coverage with Hapao

A new screencast on test coverage with Pharo and Hapao. Nice!

The hapao website is here: http://hapao.dcc.uchile.cl:8090/pier

Seaside grows

Yet another website written in Seaside (together with GLASS). Nice!

Cuis 3.2. available

Juan released Cuis 3.2. with an enhanced Look and feel.
This integration should also make it easier for Squeak and
Pharo to integrate SimpleMorphic.

Seattle Smalltalk user group

There is a new Seattle Smalltalk user group.

Seaside Tutorial updated for 3.0

The Seaside Tutorial was updated for Seaside 3.0.

Smalltalk on Open JDK

Looks like there is a Smalltalk port running on Open JDK. Have to find out more.

Yesplan

At ESUG 2010 there was a presentation about Next Generation Event Planning in Seaside.

The product Yesplan - the event planning software written in Seaside by Inceptive.be now has a website: http://www.yesplan.be

Pharo 1.2.1. is out

We (the Pharo Project community) published another milestone - so Pharo 1.2.1. is out and available. The update number is #12345 (crazy number I know!)

You can get all the details about the release here. We have an impressive number of tests ( 7836 Unit-Tests for core, 10760 Tests for the Pharo 1.2 dev image), new tools and a new UI theme. And the system gets cleaner and cleaner!

If you want to try yourself:
- download the one click distribution (multiplatform, 26MB)
- download the image from the CI server
- or in case you are using Windows grab the installer that I just released (Win32, 13MB), including the fast CogVM

Short tip: you can easily load and run Seaside 3.0.31, the included developer workspace will tell you.

SmalltalkHub

SmalltalkHub a new project hosting application for Smalltalk and Monticello projects is going beta in a week. The project is sponsered by ESUG.

Today Nicolas published an early preview screenshot. Read more.

Metacello chapter updated

Stéphane updated the chapter on how to use Metacello package configuration system for Pharo. Click here for the PDF.

More on JTalk

Nicolas Petton talks about JTalk (a Smalltalk on top of JavaScript).

Car tracking in Smalltalk

Sven Van Caekenberghe reports about a new application "T3 Easy" (a track & trace product). It's an HTML5 web app (using client side HTML + Javascript + CSS) on top of a REST server written in Pharo Smalltalk. It consists of 4 stateless Pharo Cog VM's running behind an Apache load balancer.

The server uses Zinc HTTP Components, both for its server part, as well as for clients talking to other systems behind the scenes. Even the Open Street Map tile serving, which is pushing out many megabytes, is currently going through this server.

There is a live demo and a few classes are available as open source (IP to country mapping, ...)

April

Nice april fool: Oracle sues Starbucks over Java trademark. ;)

April Pharo Sprint in Brussels

Johan Brichau and Andy Kellens are organizing a Pharo sprint at Brussels Friday 15th of April. Get the details here.

Mariano is blogging too

Mariano Martinez Peck now also has a blog and starts with a journey through the Virtual machine.

Syntax Highlighting for Smalltalk

Smalltalk environments like Pharo include syntax highlighting as any other modern IDE. And if you want to write something about Smalltalk on the web you can use Daan van Berkels work to style your Smalltalk code via JavaScript.

Seaside REST

The Seaside REST interface got an update for better matches.

Doing REST in Seaside is simple - just use pragmas.

PocketCube Solver in Pharo

HwaJong Oh implemented a PocketCube Solver in Pharo.

Read his announcement here or watch a video here. Code is available on this squeaksource project.

DesignBlocks - Scratch in the webbrowser

I already reported about Scratch (which is written in Squeak Smalltalk). In this app you can use building blocks to form small scripts and provide interaction on the screen. Looks like this concept is now also ported over to JavaScript - check out the DesignBlocks beta site.

Morphic in JavaScript

Jens Möning ported Morphic (the UI framework used in Squeak and Pharo) over to JavaScript. It also runs nicely on the iPad as this videos proves.

You can try morphic.js in your webbrowser or read the programmers guide.

So beside the LivelyKernel from Dan that is the second morphic like environment in the web browser...

Another nice example that dynamic languages are on the rise. Especially with the new "canvas" tag JavaScript can be used more and more to reimplement existing or create new rich client applications. Have a look at CanvasPaint (a clone of MSPaint in JavaScript) and you know what I'm talking about.

Progress on VM side ...

New Cog VM version from Eliot.

The Cog virtual machine for Pharo and Squeak now also has a project home at http://code.google.com/p/cog/.

And Igor is working on automated hudson builds for the VM (see docu and first results).

SqueakNOS Update released

A new update on SqueakNOS is released. Nice!

SqueakDBX 1.3 and DBXTalk

SqueakDBX 1.3 is released. This is the last release with this name.
In the future the project is called DBXTalk.

Pharo at Universities

Esteban now started teaching Pharo at San Martin University Buenos Aires Province.

JTalk and JSTalk

When I first heard about JTalk (Smalltalk on JavaScript in a browser) I immediately thought about using it to run a Smalltalk not only on JavaScript but also on the java virtual machine (by using JavaScript as a vehicle and Rhino from Mozilla as the engine to run it).

I played with Rhino in the past ... it's a simple JAR you can use to integrate JavaScript into Java applications and since JTalk is only a few kB in size it should be easy to bootstrap a Smalltalk on top of JavaScript on top of Rhino on top of JVM ...

Performance would be bad ... but it would be fun.

Looks like Thiago Silva already had a similar idea - not really like a Smalltalk, but with similar tools like Smalltalk (like class browser) to ease JavaScript development. This one is called JSTalk (hence the additional name) and can be found here.

Use Smalltalk for the next startup

Did I mention that Diego Lont and Stephan Eggermont participated in Startup Weekend Eindhoven. The combination of Seaside on Pharo made it possible they were honored by the jury with the innovation price (Most Innovative Business Case).

Read more here.

So you should really think about using Smalltalk for your next startup!

Life on Mars

Yes there is still life on Mars (project).

Riak Interface for Pharo Smalltalk

Runar Jordahl implemented a Riak Interface for Pharo Smalltalk. Why is this interesting, you may ask.

Riak is a scalable database (written in Erlang, C and a little bit of JavaScript) that is being used in production by companies like Mozilla and Comcast. It is based on Amazons Dynamo using key-value storage (bucket-keys to be exact). It has peer-to-peer replication without a specific master - this allows for a fault-tolerant system.

Runars Interface runs in Pharo 1.1., uses the ZincHTTP components and is currently in beta. Check out the included test case "EpigentRiakRestConnectionTest" to see how easy you can use it.
You have to set up a riak running at "http://riaktest:8098/riak" if you want to try.

I hope to find the time to play with this a little bit more.

SandCastle Themes for Pharo 1.2

Patrick Barroca announced two additional themes for Pharo 1.2. You can download them from Squeaksource.

 

JTalk - Smalltalk on JavaScript

Jtalk is an implementation of the Smalltalk language that runs on top of the JavaScript runtime. It was announced today by Nicolas Petton.

Some features:
- it is written in itself (including the parser/compiler)
- it is self-contained
- it compiles into efficient JS code
- it uses the Squeak chunk format
- Pharo is considered as the reference implementation

SqueakNOS updates

Looks like Squeak NOS (No operating system) will soon get an update. One of the coolest project I've seen ... booting a Smalltalk system without an operating system. Have to try out as soon as it is available.

Pharo Core 1.1.2 release and Pharo Core 1.2 in preparation

Pharo Core 1.1.2 is released. This is 1.1. with additional fixes.

So Pharo 1.2 is the new stable and a prebuilt final can be loaded here. Please test and give feedback.

Pinguy OS

Nice distro: http://pinguy-os.sourceforge.net/

Java 7

With the introduction of a few "simplifications" in Java 7 I expected exactly this kind of discussion when I first heard about the new diamond operator. Java may end up as a degenerated C++ variant...

So why not switch to something much simpler right from the beginning and care about real world problems.

Tron inspired by Smalltalk?

Do you know Tron - the movie. Sure. But how is this related to Smalltalk?

The script was written by Bonnie MacBird and according to this page her script for Tron is loosely based on the work of her spouse Alan Kay (Dynabook, Smalltalk, Vivarium). Didnt know that until today...

Smalltalk on AVM2

Alchemy is a research project from Adobe that allows users to compile C and C++ code that is targeted to run on the open source ActionScript Virtual Machine (AVM2).

Interesting enough Alexandre Jasmin is working compiling the Squeak VM with Adobe Alchemy - this would allow Smalltalk to run on the Flash VM. Interesting ...

Here are some more notes on this.

Seaside 3.0.4

After Dale finished the metacello configuration the new "Seaside 3.0.4" is ready now.

SqueakDBX news

SqueakDBX is a nice interface for accessing relation databases from Smalltalk. It is now once again supported by ESUG. Next steps will be an updated name (since it also works for other Squeak forks like Pharo) and an updated Glorp version (OO to RDBMS mapping layer).

Panu Suominen now also announced a project for simple object pooling that you can use to pool database connections for SqueakDBX.

Cuis 3.1 is available

Cuis 3.1. is available from Juan. It is faster regarding UI performance and has support for MCZ files (Monticello).

Juan also made a small 2MB image available that is based on Cuis 3.1.

SIXX updated

SIXX (Smalltalk Instance eXchange in XML) was updated to work on Pharo 1.2 and Squeak 4.2. SIXX allows you to exchange nets of Smalltalk objects between various Smalltalks.

Birth of a Smalltalk image

A Smalltalk image is a file where all the objects are persisted (similar to an OO-database). You can at any point in time save the state of your object world to continue later - for instance continue debugging a problem the next day. The image concept is often confusing for people who are used to building a program by compiling source files to a binary.

An image is typically maintained over years - and it is possible that some of the objects within a smalltalk image live there since Smalltalk-80.

An image can grow in size over time and sometimes one starts to load code/objects into a smaller one to create a new clean image file for daily work.

At Pharo-Project we currently have a PharoCore image that is cleaned up day by day and that is used to build the Pharo-dev ("Pharo") Smalltalk distribution. Pavel also worked on a much smaller kernel (Pharo Kernel project) by throwing out more classes. I already reported about his work.

However - all these were built by stripping an existing image.

Benjamin (with the help of Igor) now created a new Smalltalk kernel ("Hazel") based on Pharo. The new born weight 2.2Mb and includes 230 classes. It is just beeping to prove that the image is living. Read about it here. Congratulations to the new born ...

Combined with more VM support in the future this will allow for small kernel images that provide textual interactivity (replace your bash with Smalltalk scripts, ...) or small webserver images, etc.

Due to the reduced size these images have less tool support (no IDE as you will find in any typical Smalltalk image) - so it will become important to reactivate the InterpreterSimulator project. With this small tool you can run a Smalltalk image within a Smalltalk image and trace the processing. Pavel already started to work on this. Interesting ...

Multi Avatar Cobalt

Lawson shares a picture of a multi avatar cobalt.

German Smalltalk Podcast

There is a new german Smalltalk podcast online:

http://smalltalkinspect.podspot.de

Joachim, Marten and Sebastian talk about Smalltalk versions and events.

Best Creative Hack Of The Year

The Squeak VM had problems on Linux caused by using UUID's. It was not a Smalltalk or VM problem - but a bug that exists in some versions of libuuid on some Linux distributions. This bug was really annoying since from time to time someone complained about it (either on Squeak or Pharo lists).

This was now finally fixed by Levente Uzoni and he is now honored with the "Best Creative Hack Of The Year" award by the vm-developers. Thanks Levente!

CloudforkSSO – OpenID and OAuth support for Smalltalk With the Cloudfork

With the CloudforkSSO library you can let the users of your Seaside web application login using their Google or Yahoo accounts. Cool!

Seaside 3.0 for Gemstone

James Foster updated the Seaside 3 Tutorial for Gemstone.

Squeak 4.2

Squeak 4.2 is released.

IWST @ ESUG 2011

There is a call for papers on the IWST @ ESUG 2011 (International Workshop on Smalltalk Technologies in Edinburgh, Scotland). Read more.

Another Pharo success story

There is a new large Argentinian application based on Pharo. Read more here.

Aida 6.2

Janko announced the Aida Web Framework Spring edition

JNIPort 2.0 for VisualWorks, Pharo and Squeak

JNIPort is a Smalltalk library which allows Java code to be invoked from
Smalltalk. It acts as a bridge between the world of Smalltalk objects and a
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) where Java code is executing.

Good news for the version 2.0: JNIPort can now be used in Pharo and Squeak.
Read more.

Origins of the Collection protocol

Funny (hi)story on the Smalltalk collection protocol!

Smalltalk Beer-trinking event

Smalltalk Stammtisch Zürich Februar: 09.02. Read more

More Pharo shortcuts

It's hard to remember long URL's. At least for me.
But with these new shortcuts remembering important pharo-project sites is now easy:

http://issues.pharo-project.org
http://ci.pharo-project.org
http://book.pharo-project.org
http://wiki.pharo-project.org

Thanks Adrian!

And thanks to Geert we now also have:
http://build.pharo.world.st
http://code.world.st

Nice shortcut

pharo.st

Seaside at FOSSDEM

Stephan Eggermont and Willem van den Ende will demo Seaside at the FOSDEM meeting in Brussels, Belgium to free and Open Source developers. Read more here and the official site.