Smalltalk with James Robertson

As the current generation grows up, it should be kind of amazing to watch the expectations they'll have about user experience:

Spotted in the Seaside mailing list, by Nick Ager:

I've just published an initial integration of JQuery Mobile [1] with Seaside. You can try it out at: http://jquerymobile.seasidehosting.st

It's nearly complete - the outstanding work is to integrate JQuery scripting support - though it's certainly usable in it's current form. Feedback is welcome.

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the cross platform nature of Pharo (the same things apply to Squeak and VisualWorks - and VA Smalltalk supports source portability). If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: pharo, cross platform, smalltalk

From the mailing list announcement:

We have released the new version 1.7 of Fuel, a binary serialization framework for Pharo that provides extremely fast deserialization. More information on our home page. Again, I thank ESUG for sponsoring me through the SummerTalk program.

You can download this version in Pharo 1.2.1 or 1.3 with:

Gofer new
        squeaksource: 'Fuel';
        package: 'ConfigurationOfFuel';
        load.
((Smalltalk at: #ConfigurationOfFuel) project version: '1.7') load.

Technorati Tags: fuel, pharo

The STIC conference is shaping up for next March:

STIC is a forum where Smalltalk professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts can meet and share ideas and experiences. We are currently accepting proposals for talks involving Smalltalk technology and other areas of innovation in the software industry. We're looking forward to an excellent conference, and need your participation to maintain the high technical level of the conference!

The conference will take place in Biloxi, Mississippi, March 19 13 21, 2012.

Presentations will have 45 minutes time slots including discussion. They may be in the form of

• Technical Presentations
• Experience Reports
• Technology Demonstrations
• Panel Discussions
• Workshops

Looks like you can submit proposals to STS_Speakers@stic.st

Technorati Tags: stic

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at the offset() fiunction in JQuery. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: javascript, jquery, tutorial

We love them so much that they now outnumber us:

That's only going to rise - lots of people will end up with a phone, a tablet, and maybe a separate e-reader. This has implications for anyone who thinks we can "easily" reduce power usage as well...

Technorati Tags: mobile

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at updating rows in a database using VA Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

.

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll look at updating data in a database using VA Smalltalk - to see how to connect, please go back to this tutorial, as we are building on it here.

Once you have a connection to your database set up (with a user who has permissions to make changes), you can update data pretty easily. First, set up a querySpec for the data you plan to change.

First, let's execute a query to see what we have now:

resultCollection := OrderedCollection new.
querySpec := AbtQuerySpec forEntireTable: table.
result := connection resultTableFromQuerySpec: querySpec.
result do: [:eachRow | resultCollection add: (eachRow)].
^resultCollection first asDictionary

That gives us this, if we inspect the results:

Now let's create a query to grab the data, and change it:

querySpec := (AbtQuerySpec new)
	statement: 'SELECT * from PEOPLE where PEOPLE.ZIPCODE = 12345';
	hostVarsShape: (nil).

Now we'll do the following steps:

• Get the data from the database
• Update the data in Smalltalk
• Copy the data back to the database

oldRow := (connection resultTableFromQuerySpec: querySpec) first.
newRow := (oldRow deepCopy) 
	at: 'zipcode' put: 23456;
	yourself.
table := (connection openTableNamed: 'PEOPLE')
	atRow: oldRow putRow: newRow;
	yourself.


"commit it"
connection commitUnitOfWork

Now we'll do the query again, to ensure that we have done the update:

That pretty much wraps it up for today - we'll look at some more examples next time.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, database

Alan Knight took some time with the new language, and has some fairly detailed thoughts on it.

Technorati Tags: dart

Today's Javascript 4 You. Today we look at the val() function in JQuery. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. Join the Facebook Group to discuss the tutorials. You can view the archives here.

To watch now, click on the image below:

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: javascript, jquery, tutorial

Sounds like Andres Valloud has been pretty busy with improving the VW garbage collection system

Technorati Tags: gc, visualworks

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at inserting data into tables, and querying data from tables, in VA Smalltalk. If you have trouble viewing it here in the browser, you can also navigate directly to YouTube. To watch now, click on the image below:

.

If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. If you need the video in a Windows Media format, then download that here.

You can also watch it on YouTube:

Today we'll look at inserting and querying data from a database in VA Smalltalk - to see how to connect, please go back to this tutorial, as we are building on it here.

Once you have a connection to your database set up (with a user who has permissions to make changes), you can insert data pretty easily. Get a reference to the table (as we did for creating it), and then create a new row object:

table := (connection openTableNamed: 'PEOPLE').
newRow := table emptyRow.

Now that you have a row, add data (as you would using a dictionary), and then tell the table to add the row. Don't forget to commit the changes:

newRow 
	at: #name put: 'James Robertson';
	at: #street put: 'River Run';
	at: #city put: 'Columbia';
	at: #state put: 'MD';
	at: #zipcode put: 12345;
	at: #phone put: '123-456-7890'.
table addRow: newRow.


"commit it"
connection commitUnitOfWork

Next, we'll query the database for the data we just inserted. Set up a query spec. For simple "select *" type queries, there's a convenience method:

"query"
resultCollection := OrderedCollection new.
querySpec := AbtQuerySpec forEntireTable: table.
result := connection resultTableFromQuerySpec: querySpec.
result do: [:eachRow | resultCollection add: (eachRow)].
^resultCollection first asDictionary

There are a number of things going on there. First, we create a query spec. Then we take the results and gather them into a collection. The results are a collection of AbtRow objects - which is where the #asDictionary API comes from:

You should take a bit of time to browse that class and look at the APIs. What if you want to use arbitrary SQL, and not an implied "Select *"? Use something like this:

resultCollection := OrderedCollection new.
querySpec := (AbtQuerySpec new)
	statement: 'SELECT * FROM PEOPLE'.
result := connection resultTableFromQuerySpec: querySpec.
result do: [:eachRow | resultCollection add: (eachRow)].
^resultCollection first asDictionary.

That pretty much wraps it up for today - we'll look at some more examples next time.

Need more help? There's a screencast for other topics like this which you may want to watch. Questions? Try the "Chat with James" Google gadget over in the sidebar.

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, va smalltalk, database

Dart has been previewed today, and it's, not suprisingly, yet another C-Style programming language. I'll have a look at the language, but I really wish we could get away from curly braces :)

Technorati Tags: dart

Welcome to episode 49 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week James and David wrap up their conversation about upgrading a large Smalltalk application - specifically, a VisualWorks 7.6 application being upgraded to VisualWorks 7.8. While the conversation hones in on a number of things specific to that upgrade path, the issues are similar to those any Smalltalk developer will face in an upgrade.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, upgrade, visualworks

Welcome to episode 49 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson, Michael Lucas-Smith, and David Buck.

This week James and David wrap up their conversation about upgrading a large Smalltalk application - specifically, a VisualWorks 7.6 application being upgraded to VisualWorks 7.8. While the conversation hones in on a number of things specific to that upgrade path, the issues are similar to those any Smalltalk developer will face in an upgrade.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (or any other podcatching software) using this feed directly or in iTunes with this one.

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.

If you like the music we use, please visit Josh Woodward's site. We use the song Troublemaker for our intro/outro music. I'm sure he'd appreciate your support!

If you have feedback, send it to jarober@gmail.com - or visit us on Facebook - you can subscribe in iTunes using this iTunes enabled feed.. If you enjoy the podcast, pass the word - we would love to have more people hear about Smalltalk!

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, visualworks, upgrade

Dale Henreichs talks about the Kaliningrad project, which brings Monticello to Amber.

Technorati Tags: amber, monticello

Wow, it turns out that Stallman is a bigger ass than I thought he was - and I've never thought all that highly of him to begin with. He needs to go watch this video - it's only 11 seconds long, but I expect that he'll need to repeat a few thousand times for it to sink in.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, arrogance