Smalltalk with James Robertson

This makes me happy - especially since I just had to re-download a bunch of large game files after a disk corruption problem

Today's Javascript 4 You adds a custom UI element to a Google map. 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, map

Metacello seems to be getting more standardized - it's now moved along to Smalltalk/X

Technorati Tags: metacello

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at getting started with the VAST Goodies site (and tools). 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 the VAST Goodies site - it's both an example of a VA Smalltalk application (using Seaside), and a useful site for getting (and contributing) community provided Smalltalk code. In order to make use of it, you first need to load the support code into VA. Fortunately, that's easy - it's right in the features tool:

Simply move it over to the right and load - note that all of the pre-reqs get picked up for you:

That gets the tools in - we covered how to make use of them here

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, envy, goodies

Check out the latest Metacello bits

Technorati Tags: metacello

What happens at BioWare after you completely screw up the ending of Mass Effect? Why, you get put in charge of developing a whole new game universe, that's what:

Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect started as single games but grew into vast universes. But we aren't stopping there. While Casey continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project, he and his leads are putting together their vision for an all new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology.

Add in the idiotic EA theory that every game needs multi-player, and you've got all the components you need for a complete, utter, and total failure.

Technorati Tags: bioware, stupidity

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at specifying map UI element location in the Google Map 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

You can check out the new release on Instantiation's website

Technorati Tags: va smalltalk

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at the keyboard shortcuts available in the Nautilus browsre in Pharo. 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, nautilus

Welcome to episode 94 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 - Chris Muller talking about location aware networks. 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

Welcome to episode 94 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 - Chris Muller talking about location aware networks. 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

Spotted in Planet Squeak

Dr. Geo (aka Dr. Geometry) 12.10 for iPad is available on AppStore. It comes in two versions: gratis and paid.

If you're doing mobile and you want to use Smalltalk, looks like Pharo or Squeak are the way to go.

Technorati Tags: pharo, mobile

Cincom just hired Antony Blakey, who's done some cool add ons for VW in the past.

Technorati Tags: gui

Today's Smalltalk 4 You looks at how it's easy to use - and abuse - #doesNotUnderstand: in 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 #doesNotUnderstand: - and how you:

• Can override it to change the way an object behaves
• Should never do this lightly - it can create situations where your application fails in very hard to understand ways

First, we'll load the SimpleCounter application we used as an example for WebServices, and add this method:

doesNotUnderstand: aMessage
	| arg dict |
	
	dict := Dictionary new.
	dict at: #one put: 1.
	dict at: #two put: 2.
	dict at: #three put: 3.
	arg := dict at: aMessage selector ifAbsent: [nil].
	arg := arg isNil
		ifTrue: [0]
		ifFalse: [arg].
	self perform: #addValue: with: arg

Notice what this does - it treats a few strings as numeric arguments, and then converts anything it doesn't understand into a send of #addValue: with an argument of zero. That seems great - no more MessageNotUnderstood exceptions here. However, consider a more interesting object doing something like this, and passing values down the chain (maybe to a database, eventually). If you're lucky, you only get bad data. If you're unlucky, you get bad data and very, very odd application behavior.

Note the following workspace code:

counter := Counter new.
counter one.
counter two.
counter three.
counter thousand.
counter goAway

All of that now "works" - or at least, none of those message sends break immediately. However, a follow on developer who sees the sending of #goAway, and looks for an implementor will find 26 nothing. That's the danger here. The code is now much more difficult to understand.

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, mnu

Sven Van Caekenberghe:

I am pleased to announce the first public release of Zinc WebSockets, an implementation of client and server RFC 6455 regular (ws://) and secure (wss://) WebSockets on top of Zinc HTTP Components and Zodiac TLS/SSL Streams. High level documentation can be found here.

Follow the link for a lot more information.

Technorati Tags: pharo, web sockets

Craig Latta has released the first beta for Spoon 3.

Technorati Tags: spoon

Spotted in PharoCasts

Storyboard is a multi-user agile planning board with drag and drop support. It shows how little code is needed to build a complete application with Deltawerken. It consists of 39 classes, of which 7 are announcements (very simple). It allows you to quickly enter stories, estimate and prioritize them. In addition to stories you can add issue, documentation and chore cards. The cards are colored based on their story state. More details can be entered/viewed by expanding the card. In the expanded view a change history is shown. Other users of Storyboard can be invited to participate.

Follow the link for more details and the screencast

Technorati Tags: seaside, pharo

Today's Javascript 4 You looks at setting up maps with a selective level of map UI overlay. 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