Smalltalk with James Robertson

Via Torsten:

Now there are two new CI jobs running at INRIA providing you a standard and a Cog VM for Android. This allows to run applications written in Pharo on mobile devices.

Technorati Tags: pharo, android, cog

Today's Smalltalk 4 You starts looking at Web Services support 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 start looking at how VA Smalltalk supports Web Services. To get started, we'll load the right code in from ENVY:

Move the Web Services library over to the right (a number of packages will show up there), and then load it. That brings in everything you'll need. Next time, we'll start looking at an example. In the meantime, you can try the included tutorial:

WebServicesIn10MinutesExample new open

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, web services

Spotted in Planet Squeak

The Altitude web framework has reintroduced work done on a new streams library Xtreams. Traditional Smalltalk-80 streams have served well for decades. Michael Lucas-Smith and Martin Kobetic started Xtreams as an attempt to distill some of their experience into a new implementation of streams. A great video of the 2010 ESUG talk is available here

While Xtreams originated in Cincom Smalltalk, the full codebase is no longer available in the Cincom public repository (you would have to check with Cincom to find out why that is; I have no idea). That means that going forward, Pharo and Squeak are probably your best sources for Xtreams.

Update: Looks like Cincom changed their mind - the code is now in the public store repository

Technorati Tags: xtreams, altitude

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at GeoLocation in the Google maps API. 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, maps

I fly a lot these days, commuting to my job site in Dallas - I almost always fly American (since they have a hib in Dallas, it makes it easier to find direct flights). One of the reasons I like American is seatback power - they have it on most of their planes, and at most of the seats on those planes.

However - I think this is one of the things they are allowing to degrade during their time in bankruptcy. I've noticed the power not working in different seats on a number of planes, and this morning (I had the excitement of a 7:05 AM flight), the power was off on one whole side of the plane.

I hope this isn't a sign of them letting other, more important things slide...

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at a useful window menu in Pharo that's easy to miss - but has a number of useful features on it. 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: smalltalk, pharo

Welcome to episode 89 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from the STIC 2012 conference - Tim Krieg talking about his team's agile development experiences. If you would rather watch the video, head on over to the STIC website.

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: stic12, smalltalk, agile

Welcome to episode 89 of Independent Misinterpretations - a Smalltalk and dynamic language oriented podcast with James Robertson and David Buck.

This week we have another recording from the STIC 2012 conference - Tim Krieg talking about his team's agile development experiences. If you would rather watch the video, head on over to the STIC website.

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, stic12, agile

A while back, we recorded a podcast on crashing problems related to mods in Skyrim. At the time, it sounded like Michael had run into an edge case that wouldn't impact that many people. Based on what I just ran into, I don't think that's the case anymore. Here's what just happened:

• I installed Dawnguard via Steam
• I had to unsubscribe to a number of mods that changed towns and villages, because I was getting a CTD on any exit of an area
• Things ran fine again, through getting the first Dawnguard quest
• I went into Dimhollow, and suddenly started getting freezes. A lot.
• Then the game started CTD every few minutes
• A look at the logfiles (see this for an explanation on setting that up) showed lots of stack traces, and my save files had suddenly jumped from 13 MB to 50MB

I suspect that most people using the PC game are going to slam headfirst into this, because the intersection of people still playing the game and people using mods is pretty high (especially given how easy it is to install mods with the Steam workshop).

This is utterly game breaking. I now have a level 63 character (with well over 100 hours invested) that is unplayable. Bethesda needs to worry about this, a lot. The game may be slow on the PS3, but it's not completely unplayable.

Technorati Tags: skyrim, mods, ctd

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the rewrite tools in VA Smalltalk - they come in as part of the refactoring browser support. 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 another one of the interesting tools that comes in with the Mastering ENVY Developer Tools - the rewrite tools (part of the refactoring engine). Specifically, we'll look at code transformation. Using the stock tools, it's easy enough to rename methods, but what if you want to selectively rewrite code within a subset of the applications and classes in the system? On the launcher, open the Rewrite Tool:

To take a simple example, we have a small class in an application that has code like this:

shouldDoThing
	^shouldDoThing isNil
		ifTrue: [shouldDoThing := false]
		ifFalse: [shouldDoThing]

And we would like to change that pattern in this class to:

shouldDoThing
	^shouldDoThing 
		ifNil: [shouldDoThing := false]
		ifNotNil: [shouldDoThing]

Simple enough for one change, but what if there are a number of them in your application - and you don't want to make that change across the entire system?

The matching rules above will do what we want - and you can follow that pattern for any such transformation. Next, we'll limit the scope of our change. Click the "Search In" button:

As we did with Small Lint, select the applications and classes you want to apply the rule to. Then hit the "Ok" Button. You'll see something like the following:

Nothing has been done yet - the system is showing you the proposed changes. You can either select individual changes to apply, or select "Execute All":

If the application(s) affected are not open, you'll get prompted by ENVY (as per usual) to create a scratch edition. Once you approve that, you'll be able to open a browser and see the changes above

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, rewrite, refactor

Welcome to episode 31 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Today's episode continues the cnversation about Dawnguard with Jack Quinn and Chris Grundtner. We also talk about the news - the DLC is finally out for PC (but still nowhere to be found for the PS3). We lso get into the Stray Dog glitch. If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

• MP3 Edition
• AAC Edition
• Ogg Vorbis Edition

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: skyrim, elder scrolls, dawnguard, thuumcast

Welcome to episode 31 of "Thu'umcast" - a podcast where Michael Lucas-Smith, Scott Dirk, Austin Haley, Makahlua and I document our trials and tribulations in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Today's episode continues the cnversation about Dawnguard with Jack Quinn and Chris Grundtner. We also talk about the news - the DLC is finally out for PC (but still nowhere to be found for the PS3). We lso get into the Stray Dog glitch. If you liked our work on That Podcast, you'll probably like this. We intend to stay with the same idea - a gameplay podcast. If you don't want spoilers, don't listen - we are going to be talking about how we play the game, and what we ran across as we played.

You can subscribe in iTunes (or any podcatcher) using this feed, or this one for the AAC edition. We'll add the iTunes specific links as soon as they are available. In the meantime, join the Facebook Group and follow us on Twitter. If you play on Steam, join the Steam Group. Like the music? Pay Sbeast a visit, we thank him for letting us use it!

Links to all episodes and other information can be found on the Thu'umcast page.

If you want to download the podcast directly, we've provided it in three formats:

• MP3 Edition
• AAC Edition
• Ogg Vorbis Edition

Got feedback? Tweet us!. Enjoy the podcast, and we'll see you in Skyrim!

Technorati Tags: skyrim, elder scrolls, thuumcast, dawnguard

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at the gt() 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, maps

The Roassal visualizer software now supports Cairo in VisualWorks - and an Amber version is being worked on.

Technorati Tags: roassal

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the Small Lint tools in VA Smalltalk. These exist in most other Smalltalk implementations as well. 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:

It's a good idea to periodically run some "sanity checks" over your code. SUnit tests are one form of that; Small Lint is another. If you load the "Mastering Envy Developer" feature into VA Smalltalk, one of the tools you get access to is Small Lint:

After launching the tool from the VA Launcher, you need to pick applications and classes to run it over. Select one or more applications, and then select one or more classes. You need to use the Add or Add All options in the context menu, which adds a check next to all of the selected items. That will get you to the next step, where you need to decide which lint checks to use:

Select all, or a subset from the menu seen above. Then just run them:

The window that comes up will show you all of the possible issues - and we say "possible", because Lint can be overly aggressive. You can select an issue and browse the specifics in the code you had it check, and then decide whether or not you need to make changes.

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, lint