More Free GLASS
Gemstone has just moved the free tier for GLASS down a notch - the 2 CPU, 16 GB of data version is now free instead of $7k per year. You can find more details on their announcement page.
Hat tip to Randal for the link.
Continuous Integration with Pharo
Pharo now has an official continuous integration server (using Hudson) ready to build images.
Technorati Tags: pharo, continuous integration, hudson
Kindle Vs. iPad
Amazon takes the goves off in the video below:
There's an interesting unstated reality though: you're unlikely to take either a Kindle or an iPad to the pool or beach. Why? Say you want to read a bit, and then go swimming. With a regular paperback, you don't really have any qualms about leaving it on your towel. With a gadget? That's instant theft bait.
So yeah, it's a good ad - but I'm still not buying the idea that you would bring either one anywhere near the water...
Recording a Stream with Smalltalk and Applescript
The Citilab folks are getting me copies of the recorded ESUG talks, so I don't really need this solution - but before I knew that was going to happen, I set up two Applescripts and a Smalltalk workspace script to start recording at 3 AM my time (9 AM in Barcelona). The Smalltalk looks like this:
isTime := false. safariScript := '/Users/james/Documents/working_77/openSafari.scpt'. castScript := '/Users/james/Documents/working_77/doRecord.scpt'. test := Timestamp readFrom: '9/14/10 02:58:00' readStream. block := [[isTime] whileFalse: [(Delay forSeconds: 60) wait. time := Timestamp now. time >= test ifTrue: [isTime := true. ExternalProcess cshOne: safariScript. (Delay forSeconds: 5) wait. ExternalProcess cshOne: castScript]]].
And the two AppleScripts:
#! /usr/bin/osascript tell application "Safari" open location "http://eventv.projectescitilab.eu/index.html" end tell #! /usr/bin/osascript activate application "iShowU" delay 2 tell application "System Events" tell process "iShowU" click button "Record" of window "iShowU" end tell end tell
Pretty simple stuff, and it's easy enough to do. If I had to do this sort of thing often enough, I'd likely create a CRON job instead of the Smalltalk workspace, but for ad-hoc things, this works quite nicely.
Smalltalk Daily 09/14/10: Using FTP in Smalltalk
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at the FTP client in Cincom Smalltalk. The code used is below; to skip to the video, click here.
file := 'buildWin.st'. file asFilename exists. false ftp := FTPClient loginToHost: 'ftp.cincomsmalltalk.com' asUser: username withPassword: password. ftp setServerPassive. " ftp beCurrentDirectory: 'html' " ftp retrieveFileNamed: file as: file. ftp close. file asFilename exists. true file asFilename edit.
If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Tiobe Volatility
So back in August, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as Smalltalk fell out of the top 50 languages in the Tiobe rankings. This month, Smalltalk is sitting at 37. While I love Smalltalk, and I'm happy to see a higher ranking - that's a lot of motion for one month. Makes me question the value of the index, actually :)
Technorati Tags: smalltalk
Glorp Relicensing
Alan Knight is looking into relicensing Glorp:
At this point, it seems to me that it's desirable to go further than that, and actively relicense Glorp under a more open license. I don't think the threat of someone taking the code base and making something proprietary from it is as significant as the impediment to usage that being under the LGPL causes. So to that end, I'm going to be going through old records and trying to get in contact with previous contributors to do a relicensing under another license. I'm thinking MIT, or something in that vein.
Suggestions on licenses, process involved in doing this, arguments, or other commentary are welcomed.
Oh Noes, Google To Own the Tubes
Back in the early and mid 90's, the elites thought that Microsoft was going to own the industry. Now they think Google will. The ironic part is that this report (PDF) was released the same week that commentators have been chattering about Facebook becoming more dominant than Google.
I'll give the would be regulators some free advice - leave things alone.
It's Not Hell, but You Can Feel it From There
Behold the next bad idea in air travel - the worst seat ever.
Net Native TV
Between things like Netflix, AppleTV, Hulu (etc) - and YouTube, there's already a ton of video on the net. Now the live streaming side is heating up:
The rumors were true: after months — years, even — of speculation, YouTube is preparing to launch a full-fledged live streaming platform, enabling its content parters to stream their video directly to users in real-time. This will put the service in direct competition with the likes of Ustream, Justin.tv, and Livestream. We recently caught screenshots of a live streaming option in the wild that YouTube only made available to its politics-oriented channel CitizenTube. Obviously it has much bigger plans for the feature.
With so many options being created, I can't see how the traditional "appointment TV" model will survive....
Technorati Tags: streaming, live streaming, youtube
Smalltalk Daily 09/13/10: Smalltalk and Proxy Servers
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how you use proxy services - including NTLM - in Cincom Smalltalk. To watch now on YouTube, click here. The code used in the screencast (click here to skip right to the video):
"set up for proxy services" proxy := (HostSpec new name: cincomProxy; port: 80; type: 'http'; yourself). proxy netUser: (NetUser username: username password: password). Net.Settings httpDomain: 'CINCOM'. cl := HttpClient new. cl proxyHost: proxy; useProxy: true. reply := cl get: 'http://www.yahoo.com'.
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: smalltalk, proxy server, ntlm, http
ESUG Streaming Working
The good news is, the streaming from ESUG seems to be working - I set up a script (Applescript) last night to set up Safari and iShowU, and this morning, they were both going just fine. The only bad news - I controlled all of that from a Smalltalk script, and the workspace window tossed itself into the foreground. At least I have Audio for the early talks :)
I can get that sorted out today though, and have everything ready to go tomorrow morning again. Cool!
Technorati Tags: smalltalk
ESUG 2010 Streaming
The ESUG 2010 conference will be streaming the talks from Citilab in Barcelona:
On streaming: Today we have been testing the streaming and everything went smooth, and working with no problem. So, tomorrow (monday) you should connect to http://eventv.projectescitilab.eu/index.html
There are often two tracks - when that happens:
If it works, I'll be trying to record at least some of the talks for use in our video feed.
iPhone on Verizon?
TechCrunch explains the obstacles that stand between you and an iPhone on the Verizon network:
The past week, I’ve written a number of posts with the same basic refrain: the carriers suck. Each of those posts was in the context of Android, and specifically how the carriers are taking advantage of the openness of that mobile OS to take us back in time 5 years where they had complete control over the U.S. market — the time before the iPhone. Verizon is the worst perpetrator so far. Is there any doubt they want to do the same thing with the iPhone?
What it boils down to is this: Verizon and Apple both like to have control over the end phone experience. That makes a marriage between the two very, very hard to consummate....
Seaside 3.0 Ships
On the eve of ESUG 2010, Seaside 3.0 has been released:
The Seaside core developers are pleased to announce the release of Seaside 3.0.
Lots of details if you follow the link.
Industry Misinterpretations 205: An Interview with Dan Ingalls
This week's podcast is an interview Goran Krampe did with Dan Ingalls - which Goran nicely allowed us to post to the podcast feed. We'll have part 2 of the interview with John O'Keefe next Sunday!
To listen now, you can either download the mp3 edition, or the AAC edition. The AAC edition comes with chapter markers. You can subscribe to either edition of the podcast directly in iTunes; just search for Smalltalk and look in the Podcast results. You can subscribe to the mp3 edition directly using this feed, or the AAC edition using this feed using any podcatching software. You can also download the podcast in ogg format.
To listen immediately, use the player below:
If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Effortless for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!
If you have feedback, send it to smalltalkpodcasts@cincom.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can vote for the Podcast Alley, and subscribe on iTunes. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!
Technorati Tags: smalltalk, squeak, lively kernel, dan ingalls, goran krampe
Software Patents - Harmful to Meaningless
I like this take on the patent system from Slashdot:
The backlog of patents is almost 730K. And the Commerce Department under the Obama administration wants the average down to 20 months. How does this happen? Only if everyone closes their eyes and pretends. It's time to take drastic action, like ending software patents. As it is, by the time companies get a software patent, there's little value to them because, after six years, the industry has already moved on.
At the very least, any patent should require a working version of what's being patented - so that utterly absurd things like the Paul Allen suits are impossible.
Technorati Tags: USPTO, patents, software patents
Bloglines Dies
The entire dedicated RSS reader space is dying:
But people no longer seem to be abandoning certain readers for others—or for other ways to access those same feeds. Instead, they appear to be abandoning RSS readers as a way to read the news altogether. Hitwise, for instance, tells us that visits to Google Reader are down 27 percent year-over-year, while visits to Bloglines are down 71 percent year-over-year.
The main reason I still work with BottomFeeder is that it's tied in with my blog server, and works for how I post to my site. I have no illusions about the wider space :)
Technorati Tags: rss, atom, rss reader
Dynamic Languages in Toronto
The Toronto Smalltalk user's group is going to hear about some interesting Javascript work:
From Adam Spitz: Avocado is an (as yet unfinished) programming environment for JavaScript, built on top of Dan Ingalls' Lively Kernel, intended to bring some of the principles of Smalltalk (liveness, simplicity) and Self (directness, even more simplicity) to standard web browsers. JSQuiche, the first real application built with Avocado, is a code-organization tool, intended to let javaScript programmers browse through their objects at runtime and organize them using categories, comments, and poses.
The meeting will be on Monday, September 13; follow the link for full details
Technorati Tags: javascript, toronto
LaunchPad Updates
The engineers are enhancing the LaunchPad (I did a screencast on that here) - here's a snippet from an email to our development list:
For those of you who are using the VisualWorks Projects desktop shortcut, Applet or shell script, the LaunchPad application has been enhanced to create/manage an image signature file so that we can determine the particular VW installation that was used to create your Project image. The image signature file is specific to the current user, and will be created the first time a new Project is created by the LaunchPad from the current build. Each entry in the file (using the example in the comments in the file header) contains the image signature, the installed VisualWorks location, and (following a separator) the image version string. The first time a new Project is created for a new release/build the new signature entry will be appended to the file. If you re-install VisualWorks in a new location, or if/when you need to install multiple RC candidate builds (which all have the same image signature) :-) the LaunchPad will comment out the old entry and append a new correct one.
Flash and IOS
I think I see what's going on with Flash and IOS - in this story about Apple's about face, note ths paragraph:
Other cross-platform compiler makers had had no such trouble, even during the monthslong stretch when the now-obsolete Apple policy had supposedly been in effect. Both Appcelerator and Unity Technologies, which sell iOS programming tools, stressed on Thursday that developers using their compilers had been able to get ported programs into the App Store since April.
The article also points out that nothing has changed vis-a-vis Flash in the browser; this simply allows Adobe's cross compiler to work. So developers can ship Flash based apps for IOS, but they still can't post Flash video and have it work - because the latter involves downloading code to the browser, which is still a no-no unless said code is Javascript.
My guess then is that Apple realized that they had a stickly legal issue - they were approving other cross compilers, while shoving Adobe up against a wall. That was going to lead to more than just bad PR; eventually, there would have been some kind of legal blowback.
At the end of the day, there's less here than meets the eyes for end users. Flash content is still inaccessible from IOS devices, so the great "Flash vs. HTML 5" battle will rage on....
Invitation to Smalltalks 2010
Andres Valloud has extended a nifty invitation to Smalltalks 2010 in Argentina:
Technorati Tags: smalltalks, FAST, argentina
Smalltalk Daily 9/10/10: Creating HTTP POSTs
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at doing Http POST and GET requests in Cincom Smalltalk - VisualWorks or ObjectStudio. The examples I used are below; they hit a simple servlet I have on a test server in my office. To skip to the video now, click here.
If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it.
"Do a simple GET" response := HttpClient new get: 'http://victoria:8011/blog/servlet/TestBlogServlet' "Do a POST request for a site that should be there" postData := OrderedCollection with: 'blog' -> 'blog'. client := HttpClient new. request := HttpRequest method: 'POST' url: 'http://victoria:8011/blog/servlet/TestBlogServlet'. request formData: postData. client executeRequest: request. "Do a POST request for a site that should not be there" postData := OrderedCollection with: 'blog' -> 'foo'. client := HttpClient new. request := HttpRequest method: 'POST' url: 'http://victoria:8011/blog/servlet/TestBlogServlet'. request formData: postData. client executeRequest: request.
To watch now, click on the viewer below:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Aida/Web 6.1 Released
Spotted in comp.lang.smalltalk Google Group
I'm proud to announce the new version of Aida/Web Application server and Web framework, currently prepared for Squeak/Pharo and VisualWorks.
follow the link for more details.
Apple Caves on Dev Tools
I'm not sure why this happened now - pressure from Android, the continuing levels of bad PR, threatened legal action - but Apple has caved in on development tools for IOS:
All development tools - including Adobe Flash CS5 - are now allowed, as long as they do not download any code. Apple claims this will give developers the flexibility they need, while at the same time preserving the security of the iOS.
In the wider development space, this means Flash - Adobe can dust off whatever work they had for IOS, and ship it (whether it works any better than this remains an open question, of course). It's also good news for Smalltalkers. The work John McIntosh has done to get a Squeak port to IOS is alive again, and Scratch might have a chance at approval - although the ban on downloading executable code might still be a problem there.
JailBreak Cat and Mouse Games
It's like "Spy vs Spy", with the iPhone as the target:
The exploit in the boot ROM of iOS devices was first announced by iPhone Dev-Team member pod2g. It was soon confirmed by other hackers, who said that because the exploit targets such a low-level part of the operating system, Apple won't be able to stop jailbreakers without making significant hardware changes.
I wonder what Steve Jobs threw against the wall when he was told about this...
Seaside on Pharo How To
Jan van de Sandt has put together a nice "how to" walkthrough - building a deployable Seaside image on Pharo.
Get Your Cobol On
Well, the website is interesting, I'll give it that. I feel like I need a modem and a BBS to visit it though....
Technorati Tags: cobol
Perception is Reality
Interesting times in software development - the Oracle suit against Google is bringing things like this up:
I have assumed that Oracle's Java licensing push is going to kill off Java. I had always thought that Java was free to use and that was part of the appeal. If that is not true, then we need to find something that is free to use.
I saw that float by in my Facebook news feed. Now, what's the reality in terms of Java and usage? I don't know, I haven't paid much attention to the suit. However, how the suit is being perceived is possibly more important - it will impact the choices shops make when they decide to start new projects. The longer that suit drags on, the more it will make some people wonder, I think.
Smalltalk Daily 09/09/10: Deploying Applications in WebVelocity 1.1
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how you deploy applications using WebVelocity 1.1. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: smalltalk, seaside, webvelocity, deployment
Lair of the Shadow Broker
There's a good review of the new DLC for Mass Effect 2 on the Escapist site, but here's my complaint about Lair of the Shadow Broker (at least on the XBox) - it's got bugs.
Here's what I mean. At the beginning, after the car chase mentioned in the review, you end up on a roof fighting a few waves of mercs. The fight is fine, except for one small problem: I ran this twice, and both times, the mercs stopped coming, the game stayed in combat mode, and I couldn't progress past the roof. It was bad enough that I just put the game down (which is too bad; I really liked Mass Effect 2
My daughter says she's waiting for a patch before she even bothers with it. I think that's where I am, too.
Randal's New Smalltalk Digs
Randal Schwartz has moved his Smalltalk blog over from Vox to Posterous - along with all of the existing content. You can subscribe here.
Technorati Tags: squeak
Witch Hunt
I finished the new Dragon Age: Origins
I do have to agree with my daughter though - it looks like Witch Hunt would be more interesting if you bring in a Dalish elf, because the setup is dependent on the origin story from that background. So.... Tonight I'll be off creating another character :)
The VSE Kerfuffle
I'm not going to make an official statement about VSE here - I will note, however, that an awful lot has been written about this long moribund product recently. One of the best things I've seen is Joachim's essay on the subject.
If you are a VSE user, there are good options out there. Cincom, for instance, has a Windows 7 certified Smalltalk product (ObjectStudio) for you to consider. VSE was a Windows 95 logo certified product "back in the day" - what better way to stay current than to move on to the only Windows 7 certified Smalltalk environment?
Smalltalk Daily 09/08/10: Scripting and HTTP
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how you use HTTP authentication (Basic, Digest, or NTLM) in Cincom Smalltalk. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
More Drive Space For Your iPad
This is a cool sounding device, but while I was reading it, I was thinking about the old days of DOS hard drives a bazillion partitions:
After you've loaded the HyperDrive with your media, you connect it to your iPad with a USB cable and an Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit. While the Camera Connection Kit traditionally allows you to connect your iPad to SD cards and self-powered USB devices, it also has a disk-size limit of 32GB, which makes it impossible to connect standard USB hard drives. The HyperDrive works around this limit by turning its individual file folders into virtual 32GB drives that are each separately readable by the iPad.
Back to the future!
Technorati Tags: iPad
We Don't Know What We Think We Do
Timeless advice given to stuidents is, well, not so timeless....
Illiad 0.9 Released
Nicolas Petton has released version 0.9 of Illiad - it's out for GNU Smalltalk, and a Pharo port is underway. Illiad is a web development framework - we interviewed Nicholas about it on Industry Misinterpretations awhile back. Want full details - follow the link.
Technorati Tags: illiad, gnu smalltalk, pharo
Scratch for Arduino
We spoke to John Maloney about Scratch awhile back (part 1 here, part 2 here) - now Scratch is available for the Arduino, courtesy of the Citilab folks:
S4A is a Scratch modification that supports simple programming of the Arduino open source hardware platform. It provides new blocks for managing sensors and actuators connected to Arduino. There is also a sensor report board similar to the PicoBoard.
Seaside and DojoToolkit
Holger Kleinsorgen has put Seaside and DojoToolkit together:
I've published some packages that help developing applications that use the Dojo Toolkit (http://www.dojotoolkit.org). Dojo is a Javascript library that provides DOM queries and manipulation functions, event handling, Ajax requests, widgets and more.
It's for Squeak now, but it looks like porting it would be simple
Technorati Tags: seaside, javascript
Smalltalk Daily 09/07/10: HTTP Authentication
Today's Smalltalk Daily looks at how you use HTTP authentication (Basic, Digest, or NTLM) in Cincom Smalltalk. If you can't see the embedded video directly, you can go directly to YouTube for it. To watch now, click on the viewer below:
You can follow the Smalltalk channel on YouTube for all the "Smalltalk Daily" videos. You can also check out the videos on Vimeo, where the quality is higher, or over on Facebook, if you are a member.
You can download the video directly here. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here. If you like this kind of video, why not subscribe to "Smalltalk Daily"?
Technorati Tags: smalltalk, http, authentication
Works, Doesn't Work, What?
Now I'm just baffled. Last week, I got xAuth working in Smalltalk - I was able to post a few tweets from a VisualWorks workspace. I then pushed the code out to my blog server, and wham, it stopped working. I can't make test tweets from a workspace any longer even, with the same code. Bizarre. It can't be my code; nothing changed. I get "invalid signature" back with every attempt, from code that worked just fine last week.
