[Newbies] Re: Machine gun the Balloon!

Kirk Fraser overcomer.man at gmail.com
Sat May 7 17:09:09 UTC 2016


Yes but I don't have a website to download from.  So I'll send it via email.

On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 7:04 AM, Joseph Alotta <joseph.alotta at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Kirk,
>
> I would be interested in looking at your balance tree algorithm.
>
> Do you have some code that I can inspect?
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Joe.
>
>
>
>
> > On May 7, 2016, at 12:42 AM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden email]
> <http:///user/SendEmail.jtp?type=node&node=4893854&i=0>> wrote:
> >
> > Newbies, I learned by examining a Dictionary until I understood how it
> works and that got me a job. I also got a little help from an old college
> chum after I started a Smalltalk special interest group of the Portland PC
> Club. Beyond that it was learning by doing, hiring an offshore consultant
> for a special project to make a database using a Balanced Tree algorithm
> (which oddly is not part of Squeak when that one data structure could
> replace most of the rest of them.  Then there was the occasional help by
> Squeak experts on various things like how to turn off preferences or where
> to find code to work with a camera. A big help has been focusing my
> attention on writing a new computer language in Smalltalk which requires
> lots of work that most programmers never do.  But I still can't count
> myself as an expert because I don't know lots of important things yet like
> how to use FFI or how to write an FF or how to make Squeak work on a
> Windows 98 computer which i have to use to run a CNC machine.
> >
> > Experts, my OP was mainly  to talk you into doing some real useful work
> on Squeak instead of aggrandizing yourselves on work that is not truly
> useful - you know replacing all the collections with a Balanced Tree might
> be nice or making sharp examples of Secure Sockets or FFI that people can
> use or get Squeak repaired so it can work on Win 98 or without Halos
> replacing menus or how to make most of the programs one might download from
> CNet but I guess it rings a bell with the real newbies that there isn't
> enough help anywhere.  To translate that, I as an intermediate programmer
> need to be taught how to be  senior programmer.  So we need better
> mentoring for everyone.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 4:30 PM, Phil (list) <[hidden email]>wrote:
> > Joe,
> >
> > On Fri, 2016-05-06 at 13:23 -0700, Joseph Alotta wrote:
> > > I am a beginner with Squeak and the problem I am facing is not
> > > knowing how to go about using the tools available.
> >
> > Having gone through this myself not too many years ago, yet before
> > things really started to get crazy (in good and bad ways) in the Squeak
> > world, I appreciate what you're saying.  Squeak and its dialects can
> > seem pretty impenetrable until you learn 'the basics' which
> > unfortunately are a bit of a moving target (esp. re: the tools and UI)
> > depending on what you're trying to learn/do.
> >
> > >
> > > There is a lot of language information, but not a “here’s what we do”
> > > best practices for developers.  I don’t mean coding, but I mean, how
> > > to find the resource I need.  How to build your project in pieces
> > > that you can test, etc.
> >
> > This is where things probably get pretty tough once you get beyond the
> > absolute basics.  In its effort to get better, things are constantly
> > being broken in ways that are often no big deal once you get over the
> > hump and learn your way around.  However, they're changing enough to
> > 'break' a lot of the existing tutorials and they're changing often
> > enough that said tutorials don't seem to be getting updated to reflect
> > the changes in later releases.  As if this weren't enough, there are
> > factions with different views on overall direction which directly
> > impacts things like best practices and is why we have different
> > 'distros' ala Squeak/Pharo/Cuis/etc.
> >
> >
> > > What I was looking for is an Apprentice kind of relationship, but
> > > nobody seems interested or nearby.
> > >
> >
> > That's probably going to be difficult as Smalltalk has a very small
> > population of programmers vs. other languages.  So getting someone with
> > experience to spend 1-on-1 time with is going to be difficult and/or
> > expensive.  Your best bet to get started is to read the mailing lists
> > (I would recommend this list, squeak-dev, and cuis as they are all good
> > places to ask basic questions) and just ask when you get stuck.  There
> > are a few good written works you can use as a starting point (you might
> > want to check out something from http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/792) and
> > there are several people who have put together some good intro material
> > on YouTube (For example Lawson English <a href="
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D"
> rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/playlist
>
> > ?list=PL6601A198DF14788D and the late James Robertson https://www.youtu
> > be.com/playlist?list=PL61A023880D3529DB have put together some basic
> > stuff that should be helpful)
> >
> > Something I'd highly recommend: if you find a tutorial you like, find
> > out what version of whatever dialect they based the tutorial on and try
> > to use that *exact* version (or at least get as close as you can: if
> > something was written with Squeak 3.x in mind, don't use Squeak 4.x to
> > try to follow along etc.)  This will minimize the pain of trying to
> > mentally map the tutorial to a different VM/image with even a slightly
> > different feature set and UI.  When you're just getting started, that's
> > not the time you want to be worried about using the bleeding edge VM or
> > image.  If you can't figure out what version to use, post details and
> > ask on the lists as either someone who used it or possibly even the
> > person who created it might be reading.
> >
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > >
> > > Joe.
> > >
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Phil
> >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > On May 6, 2016, at 1:35 PM, Kirk Fraser [via Smalltalk] <[hidden
> > > email]> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Byte magazine which published the balloon concept for Smalltalk
> > > rising above the ivory tower of a lighthouse guiding the way in a sea
> > > of computer languages is out of business. I think it is time for the
> > > Squeak balloon to be grounded to connect with the reality of why
> > > computer languages exist - to make things easy for application
> > > developers.  So I propose all Squeak developers stop "improving"
> > > Squeak for one year and spend the time writing useful applications in
> > > Squeak.  That could lead to a basket of new ideas for next year.
> > >  Maybe make this a regularly scheduled event - a half year for
> > > applications and a half year for Squeak?
> > > >
> > > > The reason motivating this suggestion is on the advice of a Squeak-
> > > Dev member, I downloaded the latest all in one and to my chagrin, I
> > > found an improvement that made Squeak as worthless as a balloon full
> > > of machine gun holes.    The Workspace window gets halos with a right
> > > mouse click on a standard 2 button laptop mouse.  So I'll return to
> > > an older Squeak for now.
> > > >
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> > >
> > >
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>
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