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