[Newbies] Monticello -- where is it?

[Ron Teitelbaum]

Hello Aleksej,

I think it is a very good question.  I would encourage all newbies to start
with Monticello and learn about how to organize their work before starting
of to change the world.

There are a few things to understand about Monticello first.  The most
important thing about Monticello is that it is a code version manager.  It's
job is to store versions, retrieve the latest version, find conflicts (when
two programmers change the same source), and to show history and code
branches.  What it does not do is organize your code, solve conflicts
(thought it does provide tools for you to do it), save your code for you
(don't laugh ENVY does!), or replace proper workflow.

There are different types of repositories.  For this discussion let's just
talk about package-cache and http.  Package-cache is created for you and is
updated when you load new packages, (like from squeakmap), or automatically
when you save Monticello packages.  It is file based and you can find it in
your squeak directory on your computer.  Http repositories are like
www.squeaksource.com .  It is a shared area where you can define projects,
store your code, share it with others if you want and post to squeakmap.

How-to!

On the world menu select open..  > Monticello browser.  This opens up the
Monticello browser.  What you will see is packages that are already added to
your browser.  There are many packages added by default.  For each package
on the left you will see repositories on the right.  Packages can be in
multiple repositories.  If you think of code branches this makes sense.  

To add a package from an Http repository you should unclick the package on
the left, then press the +Repository button.  Now select the Http type
repository.  This brings up a string that looks like this:

MCHttpRepository
	location: 'http://foo.com/bar'
	user: 'squeak'
	password: 'squeak'

you should replace the foo.com/bar with the repository you are interested
in.  For example

MCHttpRepository
	location: 'http://www.squeaksource.com/Cryptography'
	user: ''
	password: ''

if you have a user name and password on squeaksource then you can add them
to the string.

After accepting your new repository definition you can hit the open button.
This will show you packages that live inside the repository.  In the
repository browser you will see packages on the left and version on the
right. You can select one of the package versions and browse it, or view a
history, or see changes, or load it, and other things too but that's a good
starting point.

When you are make a change to a package, back on the regular Monticello
browser you will see an asterisk (*) before the package name.  If you want
to update the repository with your new version, you need to save it.  Select
the package and the repository you want to save too and press save.  You
should always type in some notes as to what change you made then accept it.

There is more, like working in a clean image, upgrading images, using
Monticello configurations, running your own squeaksource image, version
numbering, or how to handle conflicts.  There is good documentation about
these things available on-line but we could talk about those if anyone is
interested.

Hope that helps,

Happy coding

Ron Teitelbaum
President / Principal Software Engineer
US Medical Record Specialists
Ron at USMedRec.com 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: beginners-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org [mailto:beginners-
> bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Aleksej
> Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:08 PM
> To: beginners-request at lists.squeakfoundation.org
> Subject: [Newbies] Monticello -- where is it?
> 
> Hello
> 
> May be a silly question.
> The are about hundred classes in "Monticello-xxx" categories. But how
> to use it? What is "Monticello browser" and how to run it?
> 
> Good luck.
> Aleksej
> 
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