Squeak-dev August 2014

squeak-dev@lists.squeakfoundation.org

38 participants
130 discussions

Running headless on a Mac
by Frank Shearar 03 Jul '16

03 Jul '16

OK, so I've run out of patience in my flailing around. All I want is to run a headless image on a Mac (so I can unbreak the SqueakTrunk-OSX job, which _used_ to work). How? Do I say "-headless"? ("could not find module vm-display-X11") "-vm-display-null -headless"? ("squeak: could not find any sound driver") "-vm-sound-null -vm-display-null -headless"? ("could not find module vm-sound-null") I don't mind whether I use Cog or Interpreter, as long as I can just get an image running tests. Thanks! frank

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trunk update broken cuz there's an empty diffy version
by Eliot Miranda 24 Apr '16

24 Apr '16

Hi Guys, source.squeak.org/trunk's Morphic-eem.740(cmm.739).mcd is empty. How do we fix it? On a related note is there any way to get the updater to download full packages, avoiding the diffy versions? e.g a preference? -- best, Eliot

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deselection broken in method list
by Eliot Miranda 17 Apr '16

17 Apr '16

Hi All, I depend heavily on fileOutAll in method list browsers. For example, I'm trying to create versions of the VM's boolean cheat code for the Sista bytecode set and do this by filing out the code for the Newspeak set and editing it. I tried to do this using "self systemNavigation browseAllSelect: [:m| ('*ooleanCheat*V*' match: m selector) or: [m sendsSelector: #booleanCheatV4:]]" to get a method list browser. Then I was expecting to be able to use file out with nothing in the list selected. This files out all methods in the list but... Deselection is broken! I can't deselect the first item and hence can only file out a single definition . Will whoever changed this please restore it asap? (in trunk) -- Mahalo, Eliot

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Breaking up ToolBuilder
by Frank Shearar 17 Feb '16

17 Feb '16

I noticed this morning that every package that uses ToolBuilder has a transitive dependency on both Morphic and MVC (in the form of the ST80 package). This is caused by MorphicToolBuilder and MVCToolBuilder. I suggest either rename 'ToolBuilder-Morphic' to 'Morphic-ToolBuilder' and 'ToolBuilder-MVC' to 'ST80-ToolBuilder' (or'MVC-ToolBuilder'). This would move Morphic-specific stuff where it belongs, and ditto for MVC. frank

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Environments update
by Colin Putney 25 Nov '15

25 Nov '15

Hi all, So I've been plugging away at Environments, and have a new implementation that supports renaming, but I wanted to get some feedback before figuring out the sequence of commits necessary to update the trunk safely. The idea is to support this kind of scenario: seaside := (Environment named: #Seaside) import: Smalltalk globals; importSelf; exportSelf; yourself. magma := (Environment named: #Magma) import: Smalltalk globals; importSelf; exportSelf; yourself. app := (Environment named: #AwesomeApp) import: Smalltalk globals; import: seaside; from: seaside import: {#Session -> #SeasideSession}; import: magma; from: magma import: {#Session -> #MagmaSession}; importSelf; exportSelf; yourself. In order to have the decompiled code use the correct names, I've changed the way lookup works. Instead of moving bindings from one environment to another, we now create a separate set of bindings for each environment, and copy the values (i.e., classes and globals) into a new binding when a binding is imported. I had originally thought to use something like #changed:/#update: to keep all the bindings in sync, but then I realized that ClassBuilder does a #becomeForward: updates a class. So it's really only globals that could become out of sync between environments. Since we have very few globals in the image, and they basically never change, an update mechanism may not be necessary in practice. So, here are some possible ways to proceed: 1. Use #changed:/#update: or something similar to keep keep global variables in sync. 2. Idea from Eliot—adopt the same convention as VW, and send #value to the binding on every access. Then we could have a special Alias bindings that forward the #value message to the original binding. 3. Share bindings for global variables between environments and disallow renaming of globals. 4. Special case the traditional globals such as Transcript and Display, and disallow the creation of new globals. Anyhow, I'd appreciate a code review from anybody who's interested in this stuff. To take a look, file the attached (hand edited) change set into an updated trunk image. Thanks, Colin

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Re: [squeak-dev] Ometa vs XTreams PEG, PetitParser, Helvetia
by Hannes Hirzel 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

On 3/30/11, Nikolay Suslov <nsuslovi(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >From conceptual and practical point of view, > OMeta - is not yet another "system tool" written for Squeak or another fork, > in contrary to XTreams (a generalized stream/iterator framework written in > Smalltalk) burned in Pharo. OMeta is a language which allows to simplify an > existed tools in it's hosted language (Squeak, Pharo, JavaScript, etc) where > it is implemented, while not porting, learning and using another ones, like > XTreams. So, redefined tools with OMeta could become really portable and > mobile, ready for using in any other fork, even in another language, like > JavaScript. > > Regards, > Nikolay XTreams is primarily a generalized stream/iterator framework. It contains PEG parser generation facilities, which I assume might use XTreams. If not the PEG parser stuff could be separated. Nikolay, what you write is interesting but too terse for me to understand. If I understand you right you mean that OMeta goes beyond the PEG parser in XTreams and PetitParser (L. Renggli) and Helvetia (L Renggli). In which ways does OMeta go beyond these other tools? AND: Of course very welcome that you run for the board. --Hannes

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Shrinking
by Colin Putney 20 Oct '14

20 Oct '14

Hi folks, What's the state of the art in shrinking these days? I'm starting a new web project with Squeak, and I want to create a smallish base image that I can use to build up images for development and deployment. It doesn't have to be absolutely minimal, just unloading unnecessary code and cleaning up the registries, clearing caches etc would fine. I tried "Smalltalk shrinkAndCleanDesktop", but it complains about obsolete behaviours still being present, so I guess there's some bit rot there. Suggestions? Colin

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Phexample: API Change Proposal
by Sean P. DeNigris 25 Sep '14

25 Sep '14

I brought this up on Pharo Dev (http://forum.world.st/Phexample-API-Change-Proposal-was-Phexample-Image-Des…) and wanted to re-post here before committing my fix, since I assume that Squeak and Pharo make up the Phexample user base... MAJOR API CHANGE: - change matcher #= to #equal: e.g. "1 should = 1" would now be written "1 should equal: 1" - update all code to use new API Motivation: the #= magic made it impossible to store matchers in dictionaries, and #hash was implemented to signal an error explaining as much. Unfortunately, #= and #hash are deeply ingrained Smalltalk concepts, and are assumed to work as expected. In Pharo 3.0, the debugger tried to put matchers in a dictionary, causing an infinite error loop whenever a matcher failed. Let me know if you have any suggestions/objections/whatever. Sean ----- Cheers, Sean -- View this message in context: http://forum.world.st/Phexample-API-Change-Proposal-tp4759586.html Sent from the Squeak - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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Inefficiencies
by Bert Freudenberg 20 Sep '14

20 Sep '14

While working on my SqueakJS VM (which now can run a current 4.5 image) I'm discovering a lot of gross inefficiencies. I have no time (or much desire) to fix these, but would anybody think it's valuable if I post them here? For example: ScrollBar>>initializeSlider ScrollBar>>sliderColor: ScrollBar>>updateSliderColor: Color class>>gray: Color>>setRed:green:blue: Float>>rounded Float>>sign Float>>> Number>>adaptToFloat:andCompare: Float>>asTrueFraction Integer>>bitOr: ctx[5]=rcvr: 3436915608L ctx[6]=tmp0: 16r10000000000000L ctx[7]=tmp1: nil Converting a Float to an exact Fraction just to find out its sign seems very much unnecessary. And without the LargeInteger primitive support it also is really really slow. My VM-level debugger makes it easy to stop at any time and look what's taking so long, so that's how I come across these. - Bert -

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"Code bubbles" - a prototype IDE
by Frank Shearar 09 Sep '14

09 Sep '14

Again, projects moving towards viewing small chunks of code/data (whether method, class definition, variables in a stack frame, etc). Familiar stuff, and maybe food for thought for alternative code browsers. http://www.andrewbragdon.com/codebubbles_site.asp Overview Developers spend significant time reading and navigating code fragments spread across multiple locations. The file-based nature of contemporary IDEs makes it prohibitively difficult to create and maintain a simultaneous view of such fragments. We propose a novel user interface metaphor for code understanding and maintanence based on collections of lightweight, editable fragments called bubbles, which form concurrently visible working sets. The essential goal of this project is to make it easier for developers to see many fragments of code (or other information) at once without having to navigate back and forth. Each of these fragments is shown in a bubble. A bubble is a fully editable and interactive view of a fragment such as a method or collection of member variables. Bubbles, in contrast to windows, have minimal border decoration, avoid clipping their contents by using automatic code reflow and elision, and do not overlap but instead push each other out of the way. Bubbles exist in a large, pannable 2-D virtual space where a cluster of bubbles comprises a concurrently visible working set. Bubbles support a lightweight grouping mechanism, and further support connections between them. A quantitative user study indicates that Code Bubbles increased performance significantly for two controlled code understanding tasks. A qualitative user study with 23 professional developers indicates substantial interest and enthusiasm for the approach, despite the radical departure from what developers are used to.

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