"A Word of Caution" to all newcomers

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Thu Dec 2 20:49:26 UTC 2004


Hi Joshua -

> Ok, cool.  I will definitely do that with the Set>>atRandom: bug.

That's my boy ;-)

> I think it would be better if others with more experience with
> Squeak startup should get to this key issue before I do - after
> all I'd have to figure out how to fix that one, test it etc.
> and frankly, other than simply changing the setting and saving
> an image with the right setting I'm not sure what to suggest -
> for a running image, the change set would be to immediately change
> a global not to change code, but for a new Squeak version the change set
> would be to change code that I don't know how to test!

This is why I referred you SmalltalkImage>>setPlatformPreferences. If you 
browse the senders of that method you will find that it is triggered if 
another preference (automaticPlatformSettings - covering whether we want to 
set some prefs automatically depending on the platform) is enabled. By 
default, automaticPlatformSettings is on, and thus this code is called and 
thus all it takes is to change that code to [duplicate|swap] the keys when 
we're running on Windows.

Testing is harder if you don't have multiple machines at hand but that's why 
you have this list - ask someone to load it and to test for you. Write a 
unit test so that you state your assumptions clearly and the people testing 
it can report back why and where something failed (if the test fails).

(and yes, it would be faster for me to do it myself but this is just to 
great of an educational opportunity to miss ;-)

Cheers,
  - Andreas




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