[Newbies] Feedback: Using Output as the Next Input

[Bert Freudenberg]

On 05.12.2014, at 12:15, Dan <dnorton at mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
> On 5 Dec 2014 at 1:13, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
> 
>> On 05.12.2014, at 00:49, Dan <dnorton at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 4 Dec 2014 at 23:22, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Why wouldn't you just keep the "output" in the image and save
>> it?
>>>> When you restart it months later, it will be there.
>>>> 
>>>> - Bert -
>>>> 
>>> That surely is simpler than trying to compile a method.
>> 
>> Not that compiling a method is hard.
>> 
> That is encouraging. Is it something similar to "Dynamic Message Calling" described in the 
> Terse Guide to Squeak?

Like this:

	SomeClass compile: code classified: category.

E.g.
	MyClass compile: 'hello ^6*9' classified: 'foo'.
	MyClass new hello
	==> 54

Or 

	MyClass class compile: 'helloAgain ^13r42' classified: 'bar'.
	MyClass helloAgain
	==>  54


>>> I might put something like this in a package.
>> 
>> I'm not sure what you mean by that.
>> 
> I mean a package on SqueakMap where one can download it and try it out. I see there are 
> over 700 packages out there for the choosing. A great variety. It's unfortunate that not all run 
> on the current release of Squeak but maybe with a little work...  ;)

SqueakMap is just a catalog for finding useful code. You first need to put your stuff somewhere else, SqueakMap would be the last step.

>>> Would users find saving the image as... to be the expected way of
>> doing things?
>>> 
>>> - Dan
>> 
>> Depends on who your users are. If you were the user ... you're
>> saving your image all the time, right?
>> 
> Um, not exactly. But more often than in the past. I feel most comfortable saving with 
> Montecello.

Smalltalk is a personal computing environment, first and foremost. Source code is secondary. We basically just resort to source code when we want to share stuff with other people. Source code in files has been called "quaint".

>> Maybe you should be more specific in what data you want to store,
>> how you want to distribute it, and who is going to use it.
>> 
> I have in mind a list of names which are matched randomly in pairs then filtered according to 
> a set of rules. The output is a dictionary and the rules specify that no pair can be the same as 
> previous (up to 3) instances. There are other rules and often hundreds of iterations take 
> place before all pairs obey all the rules.
> 
> It might be used, as it is in our family, to draw names for Christmas. The person who runs the 
> program distributes the results to those on the list.

Keeping it in the image is certainly the simplest, especially if you intend to use it by just running an expression in a workspace.

If you build it as an app so the user does not have to deal with Smalltalk, then it is advisable to treat the deployed image as read-only. In that case you would have to store the data in a separate file. 

What makes no sense at all is storing that data in source code.

- Bert -



-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/pkcs7-signature
Size: 4142 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/beginners/attachments/20141205/866abcc6/smime.bin